One curse of the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners | Eastern North Carolina Now

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

This article focuses on one curse of the Board of Commissioners. There are several other curses. Some of these are:  Lack of oversight of any department, failure to know how the education money is spent, handing over government to the bureaucrats to run, failure to force a study of how to improve education with the 52-million-dollar grant, failure to be concerned about as much as one million dollars being stolen by fraud in the McRoy law suit; on and on it goes.

This article addresses one of those curses:  The increasing size and scope of Beaufort County Government.  Many taxpayers are unconcerned as long as their tax bill is not increased.  Our tax rate and the amount of our tax bills are important to all of us.  However, what is more important is the amount of money county government spends. That is not reflected obviously in any of your tax bills.  

Our national inflation has been fueled by the amount of money the Federal government has spent during the past three years.  The Feds have used our taxes and then borrowed and spent trillions of dollars.  That borrowed money is the cause of our national inflation.  Grocery stores have become solemn places.  Customer behavior is more like a funeral home as people silently make important decisions about whether they can do without that jar of peanut butter or not.

Beaufort County has an equally serious problem.

Beaufort County Government has spent a lot of money during the past three years.  Our tax bills have not increased but spending has.  The money to fund this increased spending comes from sources the commissioners do not fully disclose to the taxpayers.  Sales taxes have increased dramatically.  While the sales tax rates remain stable, the base upon which those rates are applied has grown exponentially.  Newly taxable property--both real estate and personal property--has increased.  Fees for water and trash have increased.

Another useful way to look at all this growth in the cost of local government is to think about it in terms of how much more money government siphons out of what could have gone into The People’s bank accounts/pockets.  Yet another way to look at it is to ask:   Who should benefit from this increase in wealth?

During the 2021/22 tax year there was 1.2 million of increase, 22/23 two million, 23/24 1.5 million, 24/25 900,000.  There will be a minimum of $700,000 of money removed from the fund balance (savings) to balance the 24/25 budget.  This does not include increased taxes in the form of water bills, and trash handling.  The 23/24 budget total was $72,076,083.  The 24/25 budget is projected to be $75,445,645.  This is an increase in spending of 3,369,562 dollars.  That is a 5 cent tax rate increase or 8 percent.  Your taxes are not going to appear to go up today but they will eventually.  This well-oiled machine of Democrats and RINOs is taking us to the cleaners.

The burden of this inflation in local government spending falls heaviest on those least able to afford it:  The citizen on a fixed income.

Another source of money, is over taxation.  County “savings” (the difference between income and expenditures)  have increased every year for the several years.  Surplus funds should be returned to the taxpayer in the form of reduced taxes.  Stan Deatherage and I have made motions every year to reduce taxes.  We have been voted down.  The only reason for any government to have large sums of surplus money is to fund a Capital account for a large purchase such as a jail or a school or a large project.  “Surplus funds” should not be spent for one-time current expenses that will push the reoccurring expenditures higher.  County governments can always tax their citizens to get money.  They can easily borrow money.  Lenders know they will be repaid by raising taxes if necessary.  

The greatest “cost” of local government is the hidden cost of incremental budgeting.  That is, to construct a budget each year by simply taking prior expenditures as the base and then deciding how much to increase spending as opposed to using a zero-base budgeting approach to building the budget.  I would advocate an 80% base budget as a starting point.  That is, each department/function would start out with 80% of what was spent last year.  Anything above that would have to be voted on separately or “broken out” of the budget and the reasons for any increase voted on separately.

Have you ever wondered why the schools always get what they got the previous year, and the increased spending is simply added on top of prior year appropriations.  This makes no sense when the number of students declines every year.  

One penny in property taxes brings in 648,000 dollars in revenue.  We have had as much as 20 million dollars of surplus.  That is 20 million dollars more than we need to run county government.  That is equivalent to 31.5 cents in taxes.  If we made a one-time reduction that would mean our tax rate would be 31 cents rather than the present 62.5 cents.  I do not advocate the 31.5 cents one time reduction.  However, we could give 10 percent reductions for three years and never impact government operations. But it sure would make a difference to families on fixed incomes and struggling small businesses!

It is a puzzle to me that five commissioners are so greedy with someone else’s money.

Irresponsible governments that spend beyond their means usually get caught when economies decline or go into recession.  Suddenly the growth money from increased building and sales taxes disappears.  When that happens there is only one place to go and that is to the taxpayer.  With the economy in decline, the tax payer is strapped for cash.  The taxpayer gets an increase in taxes.  He retaliates by voting the Commissioners out of office and electing a new crew who will try to lower taxes.

One does not need a Master’s degree in Business Administration to understand the growth in spending in Beaufort County Government.  Take a short trip any Saturday, Sunday or any holiday to parking lots where county vehicles are parked.  Go to the Health Department on Highland Drive, the Social Services Department on West 5th Street, the Court House, the parking lot on the corner of West Third Street and North Market Street and the Sheriff’s compound on Somerset Drive off North Market Street across from the Susie Gray McConnell Sports Center.  Look at the new cars and trailers.  Picture what these lots looked like five years ago. Doing that shows you what might be called “increased government.”

Commissioners no longer review budgets and debate budget issues.  My estimate is the Beaufort County Board of county commissioners spent less than 14 hours going over the budget this year. It is all done in the back room. See for yourself. These meetings are filmed.  The Gang of Five will cut off either myself or Stan Deatherage when we try to present issues.  They have already clued in the staff about any changes they want.  There is a basic operating budget and an expansion budget. Both are well rehearsed.  With this back-room budgeting, spending will only increase because bureaucrats are comfortable maintaining the status quo.

As long as the five (Fake Frankie Waters, Randy Walker, John Rebholz, Ed Booth and Jerry Langley) are in office and stick together, government can only get bigger.

In addition to the increased expense of government, the Gang of Five funds their favorite charities and municipalities at your expense.  That’s based on a presumption that they know better than you how your money should be used.

Beaufort County Government cannot get smaller without open debate and commissioners who understand how democracy works.  

There are two conservative commissioners running in the November elections. They are Tandy Dunn and Hood Richardson.  You get one vote.  Vote for one of them.  In your household, split your votes between the two.