Beaufort County Commissioners Meet in a Special Called Meeting to Decide the Tax Rate for 2020 /2021 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    January 12, 2022 - Publisher's note: Due to a publishing SNAFU, I have been remiss in my duties, here at BCN, regarding the proper categorization of county government publications; in particular, the Enhanced County Government Videos, begun August 1, 2019.

    Therefore, to thoroughly correct this miscue, I will make the proper categorical correction, and bring these archives forward beginning on January 12, 2022; mixing these historical patterns of fact in with the current news of our day. Some posts brought forward will not be video broadcasts, but most informative posts as to who and what you Beaufort County Commissioners are, and how they govern.

If you are observant and pay close attention to Beaufort County's government, I still bet you did not see this coming ... I did not.

    On Monday June, 8, 2020, Beaufort County's Commissioners met to finish the 2020 /2021 budget; make no cuts with a hastily constructed economic recession raging, and retained the .635 per 100 dollars evaluation as the ad valorem tax rate for Beaufort County tax payers. The Beaufort County Commissioners had met on June 1, 2020 for their regular general meeting, and mandatory public hearing to allow the public to question their county government's budget. In this age of Coronavirus no member of the public showed up.

    With the county's finances and budget being managed by a collaborative coalition of nominal spend-thrift Republicans and democratic Socialists, the majority of county commissioners really did not show up either - with a mind to govern - by limiting our budget workshops, working deals outside of the meetings, and refusing to film the workshops for the public to witness their handy-work, or lack thereof. Regardless of your position on frugality in governing, I believe we can still come together on the reality that just over 6 hours of public meetings working on the county government budget, with none of it filmed by Beaufort County government's over $140,000.00 of the public's money spent for an elaborate, but static filming system reveals county assets poorly allocated.

    Without the public seeing the budget workshops - limited in time as they were - the public is left with the county manager, Brian Alligood, making a presentation, then the county commissioners politically postured on their varied positions of why they do what they did ... or didn't do; a vote is taken to tax the people of Beaufort County through a budget ordinance, and then everyone involved clears the chambers and goes home.

    After two years of being back on this Board of County Commissioners, and learning this new process of governing, which is completely alien to my first 18 county budgets, staggered over 20 years, it just does not set well with me, and I may never get use to this abbreviated process fully distanced, partially hidden from the public's full presence. I often now wonder what will this current process to transform to if, and when, the public ever awakens from their nearly 6 year slumber. Eventually, the citizenry, the taxpayers always awaken.

The video of the vote to continue the high spending of the People's money is here below:


    Publisher's note: If you are interested in our Archive of the Beaufort County Commissioners' General Meetings can be found here in this aforementioned enhanced format.

    Additionally, if you wish to catch up on some of the most important Beaufort County Commissioners meeting of 2019 through 2022, click here.