Things that Make Noise in the Night, Part IX | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The process of passing the Beaufort County Budget proved again that not all politicians are smart, or know how to manage people, money or situations. Common sense was thrown out the window. No effort was made to question departments that have for all practical purposes been run without questioning their efficiency for many years. Among these are the Sheriff and the Health Departments.

    There were only two public comments. The lack of public comment tells me that every department got what it wanted. It is when budgets are being cut that the special interests come out to whine and beg. Donnie Dixon, Republcan candidate for Commissioner pointed to the increased spending and the terrible state the economy is in with most people suffering lower income. He supported the two million reduction in spending. Buz Cayton made the observation we have four commissioners who have never had to provide a payroll. Could it be that business people make better commissioners.

    There was a proposal to increase spending of about 35,000 dollars so the shared secretary for Building Inspections and the Environmental Health Department could take lunch. The original plan, several years ago, was to eliminate one secretary position and the staff of the two departments would cover the lunch period. The duties consisted of answering the telephone, and communicating public requests to the two departments. This worked for a while. The staff of Building Inspections was reduced from four to two people using improved technology. The staff of the Environmental Health Department was increased. Why, I don't know, there is less work there than there was before the economy went down. Somehow the Environmental Health Department stopped providing lunch period coverage. Solving that problem would have cost us $35,000. It was never explained what the new employee would do the other seven hours of the work day. This is the same department that requested a new car because the old car, in their opinion, could not be repaired.

    Money to do an early tax revaluation was not put in the budget. Many property owners are paying taxes on property that will never bring even half of the tax value. Revaluations are supposed to bring tax fairness. From what I see the liberal Gang of Five are interested in punishing some of those who are property owners. This favors those who own a lot of personal property. As long as the Gang of Five are in power the full eight years will be required to get to tax fairness. Not revaluing is hurting our economy because no one will buy a piece of property at fair market price and then be taxed on three or four times its true value. This is odd because the Gang of Five claim to be experts in economic development.

    Not in the proposed budget is the cost, about 200,000 dollars, of demolishing the old county home which is an eyesore. Also, not included is the cost of replacing the elevator in the court house, about 150,000 dollars. The elevator is antiquated and parts are not available. This will be a budget busting emergency when it breaks.

    This will be the first time in eight years that the cost of increased wages for county government employees has not been recovered from efficiency improvements. We, during the past eight years, have been able to reduce the number of county employees using management techniques and technology. Doing it this way costs the taxpayers nothing. This budget represents a swing in the other direction. The Environmental Health secretary is a good example of a swing toward using increased payroll instead of management and technology.
This image is from back in 2004, back when Commissioner Hood Richardson had hair ... uh, strike that comment: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage
    The budget did not address how sales tax revenues are divided between the cities and the county. There are two ways. The county divides this money in the way that gives an extra three or four hundred thousand dollars to the cities in spite of their high utility bills and their ability to levy their own taxes. I would change this to favor county government.

    Economic development could be eliminated at a savings of at least $200,000 per year. There is simply nothing to economically develop. Virtually no company is moving plants or building new plants or increasing production. NAFTA took care of that. Funding economic development is a bad business decision. Proof of that is the fact that Jay McRoy and Al Klemm support it with a passion. Something they know nothing about never having to meet a payroll for anyone other then their relatives.

    There are plenty of other savings to be made in county government. I will be writing about them in future articles.