Liberals, Leftists and Democrats Have Another Successful Year | Eastern NC Now

Liberals, Leftists and Democrats Have Another Successful Year

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

The government insiders, both Democrats and RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) are chirping about the success of the Beaufort County Government budget.  They are not proposing to collect more property taxes this year than we did last year.  The revaluation revenue neutral rate is 44.5 percent.  Therefore, taxes have not gone up.  Appearances can be very deceiving.  All government budgets, federal, state and county are heavily manipulated with increased spending.

This is why we have inflation.  Prices are higher now than they were last year and they will be higher next year than they are today.  That candy bar that cost a nickel in 1955 now costs $2.50 today, 70 years later.  The Federal Government admits to trying to maintain inflation at two percent per year.  Inflation is higher than that.  At two percent per year money halves in value every 35 years.  So that candy bar should have doubled in cost two times in 70 years (70 divided by 35 = 2).  That means candy bars should cost only 20 cents.  I get the feeling something is wrong.

Looking back at last year Beaufort County actually spent at a minimum 14.5 million dollars more than showed up in that budget.  They took 10.5 million dollars for the new school and another 4 million dollars for gifting to telephone companies for broadband (internet services) from the fund balance or savings account.  This money was used to install the internet in places that did not have it because there were not enough subscribers to justify the telephone company to install telephone lines.  Somehow the liberals, leftists and Democrats have decided that having the internet is a right and it is up to the taxpayers to pay for it.  People on these new telephone lines get a reduced rate for subscribing.

Where did that 14.5 million dollars come from if it did not show up on your tax bill?  About 7 million dollars is hospital trust fund money that was supposedly loaned to Beaufort County.  About three and one half million dollars comes from setting a tax rate higher than is necessary to balance the budget.  That is over taxing property owners in Beaufort County.  The other four million dollars came from so called Covid funds that the Federal Government borrowed and gave to Beaufort County.  That four million dollars in Covid funds could have been used for a lot of things other than the Obama Administration’s idea that all citizens are entitled to internet service.

The theory behind revenue neutral is that the amount of money collected in ad valorem (property) tax did not increase from last year to this year is true but misleading.  Budget spending went up because the tax revenue has been going up each year.  This is because sales taxes go up each year because of inflation.  Also budgeted for spending is increased property tax revenue resulting from increased new car and equipment sales and prices.  Additionally, budgeted for spending is estimated revenue from new homes and industrial buildings.  Beaufort County spends this money every year.  The so called “continuation budget” spending is actually up more than 2 million dollars this year.  This is why spending goes up, but the tax rate does not change.  This practice becomes a severe budget problem when we have a recession.  This is why recessions cause great leaps in the tax rate.

The same practices are present in the NC State taxing system and the Federal system.  The Federal system is much worse because they can print money and issue bonds with zero collateral.  These are bad money management practices.  These practices are why inflation is so persistent and is not going away anytime soon unless there is a period of terrible debilitating deflation which means jobs will be drying up.  These events are depressions.  They lead to political and civil unrest.  The Federal Government is in a real pickle in so far as continuing to feed the economy with borrowed money.  The Trump administration is hoping to improve the economy which will improve taxes which will require less borrowing.  The Federal Government can then start paying off our 37 trillion dollars of debt.  If this does not work, our economic future is bleak.

The reasons stated above are why I did not vote for this budget.  I believe Stan Deatherage and Tandy Dunn did not vote for the budget for some, if not all, of the same reasons.

The Beaufort County Budget is bloated with more than a million dollars in charity donations to the friends of the Gang of Four (Randy Walker, Fake Frankie Waters, Ed Booth and Jerry Langley).  Two of these commissioners are Democrats and two are Republicans.  They vote as a block on almost all issues.  The two Republicans vote for liberal issues and therefore they vote with and the same as the two Democrats.  The liberal and consolidated Beaufort County School System is heavily impacted by the two commissioners’ wives who sit on the School Board.  They are Randy and Carolyn Walker and Ed and Eltha Booth.  These six elected officials are why we are building the 52.5 million dollars on an unneeded elementary school.  That cost our property owners 10.5 million dollars in taxes last year.

Motions were made by Commissioners Richardson, Dunn and Deatherage to reduce taxes 10 percent in order to put us closer to balancing the need for money with spending.  This was voted down by the Gang of Four at least three times during the past three years.  These liberals want this money because the have more spending plans.  There is a surplus of 27 million dollars in Beaufort County’s fund balance (savings account).  Taxpayers are being overtaxed.  It is somewhat like stealing.  It is certainly deceiving taxpayers about the true financial condition of our county government.