During the years 2005 to 2008, annual tax collections grew at 2.5 percent; yet spending grew by more than 8 percent per year across the same time frame. The county commissioners threw money at school construction, hospital remodeling, industrial parks, industry ready buildings, and incentive grants for their favorite cronies until the economy finally hit a wall and expenses overwhelmed revenues in 2009. In the 2010 revaluation, the commissioners threw taxpayers under the bus, by choosing to raise taxes and keep county spending basically unchanged.

By 2014, steeper property taxes and slower growth in spending following the recession had created three consecutive fiscal surpluses; and the county commissioners seized the opportunity to spend the money on a mega jail in Chocowinity. Reasons for the mega jail were quickly contrived, current surpluses were quietly hoarded, capital spending was deferred, and commissioners built a slush fund throughout 2013-2014, to cover the growing cost estimates of their project.

Then, in last November’s election, voters gave the proposed jail a thumbs-down, seeing it as the single least popular development in local affairs since the Union Army’s occupation of Washington in 1862.

So, by May 2015, the county manager and commissioners were confronted with a budgetary dilemma: whether to reduce the accumulated surpluses by lowering taxes or begin a hodgepodge program of capital expenditures and redundant economic development bloat, along with a rapid expansion in county staff. It was an easy decision for the board. The county manager recommended expanding a half vacant industrial park, buying a tract of swampland, threw in a list of now suddenly essential school projects and a frantic request for staff positions that needed to be filled immediately. Although tax revenues are expected to rise by less than ½ percent annually, the contemplated gusher of cash exceeds 2014-15 budgeted spending by 6.5 percent and 2013-14 final spending by 11.5 percent.

Where was all this urgency in 2014 when everything was reportedly running smoothly and we were being told to obediently follow along on the jail?

The taxpayers are, once again, left with the short straw. For five years, inflated property taxes and political opportunism allowed $5,000,000 of surfeit tax collections to simply accumulate. Then, during a single week, the county commissioners raised the base-rate of embedded spending to levels where the budget has probably boxed itself into either a tax hike or a forced scale down in required capital spending and maintenance as we approach the 2018 revaluation. Sound familiar?

We can do better than re-electing this bunch.

But, in the meantime, commissioners will be less able to intentionally manipulate the budgeting process, if taxpayers demand multi-year pre-scheduling of earmarked maintenance and capital improvements. This schedule should be based on a professional evaluation of the current condition and depreciable life of the county’s plant and equipment. Large-scale construction initiatives can be proposed, placed on the ballot, and if approved by the electorate, given a foothold by establishing specific escrow accounts to guide their development.

Warren Smith is a Beaufort County resident.