Beaufort County's budget...the mystery of governmental finance | Eastern North Carolina Now

 Now you see it, now you don’t.  Watch the marble, which shell is it under?  While Frankie Waters and the Gang of Four work hard to make us believe they are doing a fantastic job with our money there are some huge unanswered questions.  These commissioners believe their success is in not raising taxes.  Sure enough the tax rate is not going up this year.  But the spending is.  How do they do that?

These guys are so good they claim they are spending less this year, while they give about 8 percent raises to employees and appropriate 5.4 million to capital spending.  All of this without increasing taxes.

The simple explanation is that we are all being overtaxed. Inflation always brings in more money than the  year before.  That is because, as prices go up, sales tax collections go up. We don’t need to tell you that if you’ve been to the grocery store recently. With inflation new construction prices go up and that higher value is taxed.  The Gang of Four (Commissioners Waters, Langley, Rebholz and Booth) along their sometimes fifth vote--go along get along Randy Walker--are spending these revenue increases.  The other source of money is the fund balance.  The Covid money that Biden borrowed and then gave to us went into the general fund.  That was about ten million dollars.  The general fund still has the seven million dollars of hospital trust funds that were confiscated by Frankie Waters along with the Democrat Commissioners.   It is easy to take credit for being a financial genius in situations like this.

We all know when property taxes go up, because we write larger checks to Beaufort County.  However, we do not always know about increased spending because no one sends us the bill. Within the proposed 2023-24 budget presentation there is no true explanation about what is really going on.

The Gang of Four and their un-committed side kick, Randy Walker, are building in increased expenses every year.  This system works well until the economy tanks. Then, property owners are suddenly handed the bill to fund a bloated county government.  When the economy tanks we will have trouble collecting taxes.  When that happens, we have no choice but to ask employees to “work for nothing” so the government can continue to function or go home.  The national economy is about to see either hyper inflation or deflation.  The result is much the same either way.

Prudent elected officials should prepare for a future supported by less revenue.  This makes good sense any way you look at it, whether I am right or wrong.  Smaller government seems to be better government.  The surpluses we are now spending should be given to the tax payers in the form of tax reductions.  The benefits of this are smaller government, less taxes and a higher probability of sustaining county government during hard times. 

The same kind of spending afflicts the Federal Government.  Rather than taxing people to pay for government programs, they have borrowed the money.  Citizens are not irate about government costs because they do not have to pay the true cost with increased income taxes.  We will pay later.  Out of sight, out of mind for these geniuses, but mark my words.  We are already being hit with higher inflation on everything we buy and it is sure to get worse.  So yes, we are being hit with the results of deficit spending.

The 2 percent inflation rate the Federal Government strives for is a curse on the citizens.  Half of the purchasing power of the dollar disappears every 35 years at two percent inflation.  We actually need currency stability.  That makes everyone secure and promotes a reduction in poverty.   As long as there is inflation and free money from the Federal government, politicians can pridefully tell us what a good job they are doing with the economy.  Economic morons can be successful when there is 2 percent or more  inflation.  Federal officials, just like Beaufort County commissioners, are fooling us about the financial state of these governments.

There are three drivers of Beaufort County’s false prosperity.  The increased revenues for sales taxes and new construction, the Covid gift money from Biden and the hospital trust fund money.  Rather than give a tax cut, the Gang of Four and their un-concerned helper Randy Walker, dumped 5.4 million dollars of surplus finds (from the fund balance) into a so called capital expense ordinance.  This is a 5.4 million dollar increase in spending but it does not show up in budget.  To this day the Gang of Four have not indicated what they plan to do with this money.  After doing this there is still more than 25 million dollars in the fund balance (our savings account).  A five-cent tax reduction (7.8 percent) will cost about 3.5 million dollars.  Why not reduce taxes and help the taxpayer?  Mark my words again, suddenly at some future date they will find a “good” reason to spend that money…because it’s there.

During the past five years there has been no effort to reduce spending, examine efficiencies or eliminate programs.  The budget is done in the back room with the Gang of Four giving their input.  Frankie Waters then runs the budget hearings to discourage any relevant questioning of the finance strategy or money savings.   There is a timed schedule for each meeting.  When that time is up Waters, with the approval of the Gang of Four and “neutral” Randy Walker, force the meeting into the next scheduled and timed event.

Commissioners are clueless about how the education system spends the money we give them.  Conservative Commissioners are blocked from challenging the system.

But never forget or let any of these geniuses tell you otherwise.  They are taking more of your money and spending it.  At the end of the day what matters is how much they spend…and more precisely, how much more they spend than they spent before.  In the end, it's your money and if they spend it, they get it from you and me.

Finally, allow me to challenge you.  Pull up your county property tax notice and look at the total taxes and fees you pay, whether thru writing a check or the bank paying it in your mortgage payments.  Look at that amount and ask yourself:  What did I and my family or business get for that money? 

Isn't it about time for us to elect conservatives to spend our money?