Taxpayers get stuck by Carver Machine Works | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Somebody made a terrible business decision. And it is going to cost the taxpayers of Beaufort County $111,141.61 and an equal amount for those in the City of Washington. That's the news at Monday's County Commissioner's meeting, although it was not characterized as a bad decision. The fact is, most present seemed happy to be getting out with no more than that.

    In the video below you will hear Assistant County Manager Jim Chrisman give a detailed explanation. Then we are treated to a long discussion about how to try to recover some of the money the city and county put into the project. Of course, it is the taxpayer--in this case the water/sewer customer--who is getting the honor of paying for this decision.

    You can read the summary of the information by clicking here.

    Here's the deal. The county and city got an economic development grants to run a sewer line down River Road to serve Carver Machine Works. In order to pull that off they had to promise the state that Carver would create a certain number of jobs. Didn't happen. Carver dropped the ball. After the contracts had been let and the line put in, the shortfall on jobs meant the state didn't put as much money into the project as had been projected. At one point it looked like the taxpayers would be on the hook for nearly a million dollars, but the staff scrounged around and got some more grant money. It's a long, convoluted story in the details, but the bottom line came down to the taxpayers being stuck with a $222,000 bill, half on the county and half on the city. Monday night's action closed out the project.

    They did discuss how they could recoup some of that money from the sewer/water customers who tap onto the line in the future, but that's a long shot. The line is what they call a "forced main" meaning that to tap in you have to build a holding tank and pump station to "force" your effluent into the line. That's expensive and not many individual property owners will do that.



    Commentary

    We started this piece out by saying somebody made a bad business decision. It's not exactly clear who that was, but we know some of them. The county and city managements, Board of Commissioners, and City Council certainly are responsible. So does anyone know what Tom Thompson is doing these days? And how about the Committee of 100 and the Economic Development Commission? Are they going to indemnify the taxpayers?

    This boondoggle is classic. Government simply has no business taking one set of people's money and spending it for the benefit for another group (always smaller). Barack Obama called it "wealth redistribution." If this sewer line had been a good business deal then the people who use it should have been the ones on the hook. The Commissioners and City Council simply are robbing the taxpayers as surely as the hoodlum who sticks a gun in your face in the parking lot and takes your wallet/purse.

    No doubt Al Klemm and Gary Brinn will say that "it's grant money." That's what they said in the same meeting about a lesser amount in another foolish business deal..."its grant money." But with the Carver thing its worse. The taxpayer should not have been forced to take the risk.

    We realize it's not a popular position, but we think Carver's management and owners should have to pay the county and city back for the loss the taxpayers are taking on this deal.

    When are our so-called "leaders" going to learn that it is not their money to give away? The only thing they have a right to take is what it takes to pay for the general cost of government. And by general we mean those things everyone--not just a handful--benefit from. Beyond that, these people have no right to take money from the hard working people of Washington and Beaufort County to fund these gambles.

    Stan Deatherage is right, and correct. The time has come for government to get out of the "economic development business." But if they're going to continue to try to play Big Shots they at least should make the people who are the potential benefactors bear the risks.