Beaufort County Budget Public Hearing: Charles Hickman | Eastern North Carolina Now

    I'm Charles Hickman from Blounts Creek and I am speaking against another tax increase. We have heard a lot of assumptions about the anticipation of economic growth, and we have heard how perplexed our budget planners are about unanticipated declines.

    I'm perplexed, too. It amazes me that people with reasonable intelligence would believe in perpetual economic expansion. In reality an economic business cycle includes expansions and contractions. These contractions do not necessarily have to be severe, but they can be.

    The worst of these contractions in our memory is the Great Depression. The worst one since then is the one we are in now. The things both have in common are massive governmental interventions. The 20th century Hoover/Roosevelt policies and 21st century Bush/Obama policies have much in common. Observation shows us that these interventionist policies prolong recessions.

    Beaufort County is receiving less revenue, because we are in a prolonged recession. Since the signing of the Federal Stimulus Bill our country has lost 1.9 million jobs. Beaufort County has 10% unemployment. Fuel and food prices are high. Foreclosures are increasing.

    Last year, homeowners took the brunt of the tax pain from the revaluation. My taxes doubled. Others were hurt worse. Don't come back to us again for money. Base your budget on what you have-like we have to do. Cut back like we have already cut back. Be good stewards of the public trust. We can only afford basic/legitimate government functions. Don't raise our taxes again.