To the Editor:

In June 2014, the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners approved a 2014/15 budget that projected expenses of $54,131,752, and implied revenues of nearly $55,000,000. In order to accommodate jail planning and development costs of $1,600,000, the budgeted spending was described as restrained. At the same time, the budget understated its revenue projections in order to quietly accumulate a cushion of funding for an unpopular jail. The commissioners were, in effect, bankrolling a war chest to offset the growing estimates of the jail’s actual cost.

As disingenuous as this document was, it represented the last effort at controlled budgeting residents of this county are likely to see for years.

The jail died in November and by New Years the interim county manager was in place. This is all that was required to destroy any of the discipline that was left in government spending. In May 2015, the now retiring, interim county manager, unveiled the 2015/16 budget: $60,453,331. It recommends spending increases a full 17 percent above and beyond the spending levels of 2014. Tax collections that were portrayed as depressed in 2014/15’s budget are now seen to have increased by over $3,000,000 in the last year alone, but spending has actually been increased more than $9,000,000 during the last two years and $6,000,000 in this year. No matter how much we pay in taxes, the opportunists that run this county will find a way to spend it. Mention that taxpayers would like a reduction in tax rates and our commissioners will start a bonfire of cash rather than give it back.

It is fair to ask: If Beaufort County was in decent enough shape last year, regarding the maintenance of its facilities and levels of its staffing, that we could be told the financing on a $22,000,000 new jail would have negligible effect on the county’s ability to carry on business as usual, then how come in 2015 we are being told that our plant, equipment and personnel levels are desperately in need of additional spending to make up for years of neglect?

Heads, politicians win; tails, taxpayers lose.

It does not get any more ridiculous than a county manager arguing for the purchase of a 12–acre swamp and recommending appointment of an assistant economic development staffer. The manager took time to write: “What many people don’t realize is that expansion of existing industry in North Carolina creates as many jobs as new industry.” This condescending advice comes from a guy who just expanded government spending by draining $9,000,000 in extra taxes from the businesses and homeowners of a Tier 1 county. Why is it that bureaucrats can never appreciate lower taxes as economic incentives, but they will hire another grant writer in the blink of an eye?

There we have the 2015/16 Beaufort County budget a textbook example of special pleadings and kneejerk spending, detached from any scheduled capital expenditure rationale, cost analysis or basic common sense. When it comes to taxes, “If ya’ got ‘em, burn ‘em.”

 

Warren Smith

Beaufort County