The NewsVirginian has an article about the potential tax rate increase in Augusta County to cover the budget shortfalls that they have had to cover recently. $2,4 million to cover the school issue and another $1 million for Police & Firefighter coverage... Now comes the shell-game to find the additional funds or raise the tax-rate across the board for the county residents...
Taxes could go up next year in Augusta County, but that decision won’t be made until supervisors meet next week for another budget work session.
Supervisors have committed an additional $2.4 million to the county schools in next year’s budget above county growth revenue, and reached a consensus Wednesday on an additional $1 million in other obligations that include two additional sheriff’s deputies and three new firefighters in Mount Solon.
Wills said he did not see the budget as balanced if the county is borrowing money from other funds to meet operating needs. He said he was reluctant to take money from capital accounts when the county might need those funds to repair a dam or for economic development. He described “big dollars” as being needed for a potential major economic development project.
If necessary, he said, supervisors should “step up to the plate” and tell Augusta County residents a tax increase is needed to fund the 2012-13 budget. The current real-estate tax rate is 48 cents per $100 of assessed value.
North River Supervisor Marshall Pattie, on the other hand, said he was not opposed to using the capital accounts to get the county through the remainder of a difficult economic cycle.
Pattie said real property values in his district increased 47 percent during the last reassessment, and he would not like to add a tax increase to that.
And Pattie said there is additional revenue on the horizon for Augusta County, with the anticipation at some point of the Augusta Marketplace retail project opening inVerona.
Read more at: NewsVirginian
This new board is a joke!!!! Campaign platforms of fiscal responsibility was just to get your vote. You had the Swac'ster cranking out propaganda daily decrying all the frivolous spending of the last board and whatever other issue she could try and make to demogue board members . Her rising star flat out lied about doing an "immediate reassessment, if elected" after all the talk about the prior board "adding insult to injury by extending the assessment for 1 year to 5 years instead of 4". Not a word from her about that issue.
ReplyDeleteNow you have the new and supposedly fiscally responsible board giving the schools 3 million dollars and the school board says they don't even know what they will spend the money on. Now the board wants to add 1 million more in new spending and these new conservatives openly admit they don't know where the money is goin to come from but yet its ok to commit to the spending anyway.
Here's a question I would like Mr. Pattie to answer. If you take non reoccurring monies and use them to fund yearly reoccuring expenses this budget year, what happens next budget year if county revenues do not increase to meet those expenditures??? Common sense tells us that if revenues do not meet expenditures, then those expenditures have to be cut!!!!! So why gamble and add them in the first place. That appears to be the jist of what Mr Wills is saying.
I'm seriously beginning to question the business acumen and fiscal responsibility that these new board members professed to have to get elected.
Spending more than what we take in... (See Federal Govt. for example) If we spend the "Rainy Day Fund" to balance the budget that money is not replaced and will not be there or replenished when needed. The problem is we are spending more than what is coming in. Cuts in education or fire service is always a hot topic but we can make proper cuts in all areas to balance the budget... Taxpayers are watching and it is now time for the campaign promises to be met... Watch for a Real estate tax increase coming down the road and watch how it compares to past political campaign promises......
ReplyDeleteLocal- this is very perceptive of you. Gang members use the right rhetoric on blogs and in campaigns but once you get to know them and how they operate you realize that its basically about personal political power. Karaffa knows who butters his bread. He used big talk in the campaign about what a budget hawk he would be but as soon as he had a chance to lead, he instead slobbered all over the little special interest group (SOS) that his patron Dr Mike put together to bully taxpayers. If you can't be serious about imposing financial discipline in the single biggest budget item any locality faces then you aren't that serious. The voters will have to live with this and maybe learn their lesson next time around?
ReplyDelete"Watching"
ReplyDeleteI believe you are correct and I believe Sup Karaffa has had a wake up call as far as how Govt really works as compared to what he thought\hope during the "campaign promise" period of political campaign. As far as "Political Power" and who "Butters his bread" his Puppet-master KM has been busy looking for and holding a following. The "Thousands" he claimed back during the re-assessment hype have left now that they understand how the process happens and the local Conservatives and Republicans have seen him for what he is and also avoiding the circus. KM and his limited following are now holding "SWAC Breakfast" for candidates and have even promoted the Deomocratic candidate to local races to gain attention in the local press:
http://swacbreakfast.blogspot.com/2012/03/swac-breakfast-march-31-2012.html
Hard to believe or understand which way the wind is blowing anymore with this group....