CCTA Watchdog Report- 23 May 2013

CCTA Watchdog Report- 23 May 2013

Craven County Board of Commissioners Budget Work Sessions

First, the transparency afforded to the public on these deliberations is to be highly commended. The County Manager's proposed budget is available on the county website at Manager Recommended 2013-2014 County Budget. A printed version is available at the County Manager's office.

The County Finance Officer, Rick Hemphill, has been very helpful in letting the Commissioners know when a budget item has been mandated by federal or state law. This is very important information for our Commissioners and for us to know, and I appreciate his making it available.

The budget work sessions are open to the public. I have been able to attend them all, and a couple of other citizens that I have seen at CCTA meetings have also attended. The Board has been very open with me and allowed me to ask questions on behalf of CCTA. For all this, I am very grateful.

Commission Chairman, Scott Dacey, has asked me on several occasions what is in the budget that I object to. I will now try to answer that question.

In order to answer, I first ask myself the question, "Where in the Constitutions of the United States and North Carolina is the authority to spend taxpayer money on this item found?"

The next question is, "Does it have the potential of serving all the county's citizens, or just a few?"

The third question is, "Can we afford it?"

There are many things in the budget that don't pass muster on the first question, and bring us back to that old discussion about forcibly taking money from one citizen in order to give it to another. I do not have the right to steal from one neighbor in order to give to a less fortunate neighbor. Ergo. I cannot possibly have given that right to my government. Here are some examples of that's being done in the proposed budget:

Day Care services-
$4.3 Million dollars of taxpayer money is to be spent in Craven County alone (remember there are approximately 3,000 counties in the US).

Maternity- (that's the name of a big budget item)-
$1,355,638 has been proposed for the budget. Mr. Hemphill said that a big portion of this is not mandated because it exceeds the federal requirement and costs the county a lot of money.

WIC (simply means Women, Infants and children)-
There are three budget items under this category. They total $634,556.

Breast Feeding Promotion- $36,304

Family Planning- $233,539

Risk Reduction, Drugs, etc. (not mandated) - $6, 860.
This list in the Department of Social Services just goes on and on! Suffice it to say that this department of county government, and indeed in the whole State, has gotten way out of hand. It sometimes serves useful purposes, but needs to be greatly reduced, and gradually transferred to the private sector.

Then apply the same rule to the Special Appropriations. Here are some requests:

Promise Place- $20,000
Coastal Women's Shelter- $10,000
Senior Companion- $10,000
North Carolina Symphony- $5,000
App Health Foundation- $10,000
RCS Homeless Shelter- $10,000
Red Cross- $6,000
Havelock Parks and Rec- $108,200

All of these organizations should look to their own resources for financial support and not to the County taxpayer.

Then there are memberships:

School of Government (how to get more tax dollars)- $11,651
NACO (prescription drug program)- $2,070
North Carolina Association of County Commissioners- $10,370
ECC Dues- $15,631
ECC Rural Planning Organization- $5,836
New Bern Municipal Planning Organization- $9,678
NC Association of Black County Commissioners- $100

Some supported organizations do good work like:

Association for Cherry Point's Tomorrow (ACT)- $25,000
Highway 70- $25,000
Highway 17- $35,000
NC20- $10,000

There is some good news:
A change in the billing procedure for vehicle tax produced a one-time windfall of $1,150,000.

The ABC staff estimates that the county will be receiving more than the $280,000 they have received for years. It is expected to be closer to $400,000 annually.

Ten DSS positions have been abolished in the budget, and one unfunded.

No new part time positions are recommended.

The new water treatment plant can be paid for without raising customer charges due to some really good planning by Rick Hemphill and the Commissioners. This is significantly good news.

And some bad:
The state has raised the required contribution for local governments for employee retirement plans from 6.74% to 7.07 %. This will cost the county $84,000. This kind of thing happens repeatedly. These plans need to be changed from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. The estimated return on investment is always too high, and results in requiring the taxpayer to make up the difference. IT IS A RIP-OFF! We need to communicate this to our representatives in Raleigh again.

General insurance cost increased by 17 % this year for coastal counties.

A 1% raise is included in the proposed budget for all county employees. THIS IS A BAD ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT FOR THIS TO HAPPEN IN!

County government expenditures continue to grow. Expenditures for FY2013 stood at $93,035,976 on 30 April 13. That's about $3 million more than last year's. So we are seeing about a 3% growth this year. IT SHOULD BE DECREASING UNDER A REPUBLICAN BOARD! The county manager's proposed budget will perpetrate that trend. PERHAPS THE COMMISSIONERS WILL CHANGE THAT IN THE FINAL APPROVED BUDGET. LET'S HOPE!

Respectfully Submitted,
Hal James, Watchdog Committee Chairman
Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association