Last night a packed house in the Midway Room of the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center made their case to create or save budget cuts for a county which finds itself millions short on revenue needed to fund the budget they intended when it was passed over the summer. Well over 200 people were present, with a total of 25 getting to speak.
The problem is easy to explain – Wicomico County is taking in less than they thought they would be so in order to maintain the balanced budget as they are required the county is making cuts to most areas and services.
As County Council President John Cannon explained, though, Wicomico County is not alone in facing this reality – lots of other counties also have to make stark choices due to the sluggish economy.
Yet it was also pointed out that county departments which make up 54% of the budget are undergoing 100% of the cuts. Left unsaid in that remark is the fact education makes up 46% of the county budget, so the math is easy to do. In theory, then, public safety and health suffers half the cuts because that comprises 27% of the overall budget.
The recently-passed furlough days address a small portion of the shortfall (about $725,000 out of roughly $6.3 million) and the 4,092 furlough days make up 3.6% of the total employee days for all county employees. I presume this is because we can’t touch 46% of the budget and it’s difficult for teachers to take a day off anyway. Regardless, aside from education each department takes a cut ranging from 1.4% to public health to 79.5% on pensions. Among the effects of cuts will be the main library ceasing Sunday hours, the update to our county’s comprehensive zoning plan will take longer, and the increase in enrollment at Wor-Wic Community College will be greeted with no additional staff.
More scary is the prospect of having these meetings again and again, year after year. It’s predicted that the budget gap will be $33 million from FY11-FY14, so next spring will likely find us doing the same sort of thing as the wild guess that is the FY11 budget will be shaped. Yet the county will only have $17 million in its reserve funds at the close of FY10 next year.
As Pollitt’s report concluded:
The time has come for our community to consider the quality of public services we expect and demand from our county and then make the necessary commitment to pay for them.
Yep, repeal the revenue cap. Unfortunately for that idea most of the public comments thought that there were more cuts which could be made.
Two representatives of the group VOICE, John Palmer and Johnnie Miller, had several suggestions for tightening the county’s belt and restructuring government:
- Consolidate the local police departments and Sheriff’s Department
- Privatize the function of the Civic Center in a new location and renovate the existing building to house county offices, rather than having them spread out and paying rent
- Privatize the county’s liquor board
- Take land off the public rolls and restore it to taxpaying private property – Miller stated we have a “diminishing private sector and growing public sector.”
- Amend the county’s charter by reducing County Council from 7 members to 5, placing all capital projects before the voters for approval, and reducing the piggyback tax from 60 percent back to 55 percent.
Citizen Dave Gladden chipped in that having a public information officer to speak from Pollitt is “ridiculous” and we needed to stop the practice of “double-dipping” where county retirees are rehired in different positions.
Marc Kilmer made the points that online information is difficult to come by, but from what he could glean he saw the issue as “more of a spending problem than a revenue problem.” Perhaps one answer lay in encouraging volunteerism – a solution I just thought of sitting here writing this would be one of “adopting a park” like groups and businesses adopt a road to cut down on litter.
Telling the County Council that “you work for us (and) we’re gonna tell you how to legislate”, Ken Nichols opined that it was time for “serious, unpopular cuts.” He suggested a privatization of services like road grading on unimproved roads, roadside mowing, and animal pickup. I can agree with this idea, as it would be an opportunity to create private-sector jobs and those who no longer work for the county in those functions theoretically would be the best to fill them, but at a reduced cost to the county.
One option not on the table, according to Mary Gibson, is raising taxes. She told those gathered about living on a fixed income and said, “one option that’s not open is increasing taxes.” It was time for the county to make the “uncomfortable decisions” she’s had to make for her finances.
Don Coffin made the statement that if he’d done his finances like the government did, he’d be bankrupt by now. Much of the problem was corruption and greed at all levels of government, but the adversity we were undergoing was also an opportunity to prioritize, streamline, and restructure county government.
However, there were speakers who pleaded to preserve their cherished government service. Six of them were advocating on the behalf of the Westside Community Center, while Ray Hoy, president of Wor-Wic Community College, outlined the effect county cuts would have on their bottom line. These included an increase in tuition costs from $81 to $89 per credit hour for Wicomico County residents and a proportional cut in contribution from Worcester County – apparently their contribution is set by statute as a percentage of ours.
One other caution was expressed by resident Patrick Doyle, who called the county’s plan to defer $800,000 to retirement and pension accounts a “ticking time bomb” which could eventually bankrupt the county if deferrments continue to stack up.
Ed Urban from the Wicomico Recreation Commission claimed they’ve “already cut all they can cut” but would do the job of cutting a $1.9 million budget to $700,000. Parks and recreation were both a “quality of life issue” and a revenue producer, as Ed claimed a $19 million rollover from tourism in Wicomico County. An immediate $300,000 boost was possible by simply allowing alcohol sales at the Civic Center. (Alcohol sales are prohibited there due to a stipulation in the original grant of the land where the Civic Center sits to the county, which dates from the 1940’s.)
And then we have what I like to call blogger’s row. As you can see by the list above I was number 18 on the speaking list. Three of the next four speakers after me were also local bloggers: G.A. Harrison of Delmarva Dealings, Julie Brewington, the Right Coast Girl, and Joe Albero of Salisbury News.
All of us made the case for not raising taxes and budget prudence. But Harrison called the county’s approach a “band-aid solution” which was simply “nibbling around the edges.” We could take a look at the Board of Education’s rate stabilization fund or not taking property off the tax rolls for public usage, but G.A. looked at the situation as one leading up to a call for a tax increase – we could “fix government or own up to repealing the revenue cap.”
After praising the County Council for having an evening meeting where she didn’t have to take off work to attend – we “deserve transparency” as she put it – Julie questioned the wisdom of drawing down reserves so heavily and asked what we would fall back on next year. She also asked why we needed a new library.
The library was one of two subjects Albero addressed after asking John Cannon if he had a gavel, citing his recent “bad experience with a gavel.” Albero claimed the main library was built for a 50-year lifespan, so it had many years of use left in an era where a library didn’t need to be so large with the advent of the internet. One plan for a new library wiped out a large swath of downtown parking and the revenue stream from removed parking meters, claimed Joe.
Meanwhile, crime was rampant as Salisbury was the second most crime-ridden city per capita in the country. Investing in the Sheriff’s Department would be “good money after good money”, opined Joe.
(Tom Hehman, Director of the Wicomico Public Library, rebutted Albero by saying the plan he referred to was “not sanctioned” by the WPL. He continued that this wasn’t the time to discuss the library’s building plans.)
If you’re curious about what I said, I made two main points.
I asked if any state officials were present. Considering they weren’t present, it was unfortunate because they created much of the problem so they needed to be part of the solution. One issue was having 46% of the budget be untouchable because of the state mandate called “maintenance of effort.” This can only be addressed at their level, as can making the state more job-friendly.
Having such a negative attitude toward business growth and expansion has cost the region jobs. While one observer complained about having too many retail jobs, we shouldn’t discount their importance as part of an overall strategy to bring manufacturing and well-paying white collar jobs to the area. If the area has more jobs, that brings in more revenue and we don’t have a large group of people fretting over the cuts to the Westside Community Center.
In conclusion, Council President Cannon called the meeting “excellent input from the community” in “a very challenging time.” I tend to agree on both counts, but the proof will be whether County Council and County Executive Rick Pollitt can make unpopular decisions leading up to an election year.
Very detailed as usual Michael. What are the next steps? Closed sessions to make determinations or what? I’d like to know.
Sir:
That suggestion to cut Pollitt’s “public info. officer” is spot on and can be done immediately. Is the local Republican apparatus going to push for that?
Done miss the Bill Reddish part of the morning show on WICO (1320 AM) tomorrow morning — with Ricky Pollitt.
If you didn’t catch Reddish-Pollitt this morning, it was mostly platitude plus angst until Bill asked the big guy about why he needs a PIO (Fineran). Ricky P. said that the position was vacant when he took office and he had considered cutting it then, but didn’t (for untold reasons). Then he attempted to praise Fineran’s service. It was gruesome.
Pollitt should show us that he is serious by terminating Fineran’s position NOW. But then Mr. P. would have to pay his campaign manager himself.
I heard it. Same old sob story.
The discussion does need to occur about priorities, but not just at the local level. It needs to happen at the state and federal governments as well but fat chance of that happening for awhile.