Beaufort County Republican Commissioners recently made history | Eastern North Carolina Now

 By:  Hood Richardson

Few people get to make or witness history.  I was there. I saw it firsthand.  For the first time since Reconstruction (about 150 years) a Beaufort County Commissioner Board composed entirely of registered Republicans voted. It happened during the annual budget retreat on Friday January 27, 2023.   Democrat Commissioners Langley and Booth were absent.  Those that remained were the five who were elected as Republicans.

I made a motion to reduce the tax levy by about four million dollars for the County business year beginning July 1. 2023. Three Republican commissioners voted against reducing taxes. Two voted for reducing taxes.  Walker, Waters and Rebholz voted not to reduce taxes.  Deatherage and I voted to reduce taxes.

History was made in more ways than only five Republican commissioners being present.  The County Manager indicated that he did not know how to reduce taxes!  Walker, Waters, and Rebholz also indicated they did  not know how to reduce taxes.  (This is a video recorded meeting, check me out) They used the same ploy they used at the January meeting when Stan Deatherage presented a resolution on restoring the purpose of education.  They proffered that they were confused and could not understand the resolution.  The voters will have to decide whether these individuals are actually that dumb or whether they do not want to lower taxes, maybe both. 

It is now noteworthy that we have Republicans who are stupid or who do not want to lower taxes.  We see that in Raleigh and Washington D.C.  all the time.  Most of these politicians have better cover than pleading stupid. It is noteworthy that these Republicans have enough confidence in what the public wants, to vote not to reduce taxes.

We tried to reduce the tax rate last year but the same group of Republicans along with Democrats Langley and Booth voted to spend the money.  Spending went up 14 percent.  They found many rat holes, like free tuition at the community college.  They have new rat holes this year.  The back room will determine how your 5-million-dollar surplus is spent again this year.

The five-million-dollar surplus is based on taking the arbitrary 35 percent savings balance and subtracting it from the cash on hand.  That leaves a 5-million-dollar surplus.  What about the other 37 million dollars in the saving account? The truth is most of that 37 million is surplus too.

Common sense says that when government collects enough money to create a surplus then taxes were too high.

If one takes the Beaufort County budget which is about 67 million dollars and adds the savings account, there is about 109 million dollars for the commissioners to “play with.”  Why is it we cannot find 4 million dollars to reduce taxes when we are piling up this kind of money?

Let me tell these Big Spenders and the County Manager how to cut taxes.  Simply direct the department heads to submit a budget that is 80% of what it was last year.  If they wish they can tell the department heads to itemize what will be cut from their budget at 80% of last year.  Anything put on that list of cuts must come back to the BOC before those cuts can be spent.

And if you want to get really interesting results the board could offer a 10% bonus to each department head that achieves actually implementing those cuts.

Our National Distress is caused by the Federal Government spending.  The COVID handouts are directly related to inflation.  That is, they are a chief cause of the inflation we are now suffering.  Tens of millions of people are getting money from the Federal Government, that is why they do not want to work.  This is all borrowed money.  The major spending is done by the Feds but they have a lot of enthusiastic help from State and County Governments.  From history we should remember 1929, rich one day and broke the next.  Could it happen again?

Fake Frankie Waters took exception, calling people liars, when he was accused of raising spending during the 2022 election.  Fake Frankie along with his cronies are doing the same thing again.  Nothing changed as a result of the last election.  John Rebholz and Randy Walker will be giving you the same excuses during the 2024 elections. 

Rebholz, Waters and Walker do not think like Republicans.  Certainly not conservative Republicans. Reagan believed in “lower taxes, less government and more freedom”.  I challenge you to fit these three commissioners into Reagan’s definition.  Rebholz is spouting to all who will listen that he can lower the cost of housing.  By giving away tax dollars!  His cheerleaders think he is going to tap these Beaufort County funds to subsidize housing.  Does this sound like a Republican?  With the three RINOs and the two Democrats there are enough votes to pull it off and send the bill to you.

During this budget workshop the manager proposed to present the “continuation budget.”  That is, take last year’s budget and add to it.  There was no discussion about lowering spending or changing services.  In order to control the dialogue Waters runs these meetings on a strict timetable.  This allows his team to say what they want but the opposition is limited.  

Watch for the increased spending to be hidden just like it was last year. Taxes will not go up because we are collecting more taxes than anticipated.  The reason is increased sales tax revenue and the more than 200 homes built in Beaufort County last year.  We are all being overtaxed because these increased revenues should be returned to the taxpayer by lowering the property tax rate.  This is legalized thievery, if there is such a thing.

Republicans like these are why we have fewer Democrats in Beaufort County.   If you want to change government, you have to change the people who are running government.