Fiscal Policy, a la Shanie
At Wednesday’s sparsely attended Salisbury City Council budget meeting the taxpayers of Salisbury were treated to the fiscal genius that is Shanie Shields. Ms.. Shields believes that the police officers of Salisbury are underpaid. In all honesty I’m not competent to debate that matter with her or anyone else.
Ms. Shields has a solution - raise your property taxes. How much time has Ms. Shields spent pouring over the budget to find areas of spending that could be cut? I’m willing to bet that she hasn’t spent any time with that purpose in mind. One of Ms. Shields’ trademark lines is “I trust our experts”. Which is it Shanie? If you trust your experts to formulate the budget, then why do you want to modify it? If you want to modify the budget, why not start with cutting costs rather than digging farther into the taxpayer’s pocket?
Gary Comegys wasn’t very please to hear Shanie enter the fiscal debate. Of course he has to run for re-election next year.
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Comments
Raise property taxes?
Easily said, when most of the constituents of her represented area of the city are renters, living in properties owned by landlords who routinely gouge them with rents that permanently prohibit them from ever owning property of their own.
As it is the case that renters in Salisbury, as a group, require more calls for service from the PD (and FD and ambulance)than any other, and inhabit over 70% of the residential properties in the city, why not consider, Shanie, a rental or renters’ tax (it would be the same thing in the end) to boost the pay of our men and women in blue?
The income to landlords in the city from residential rentals has to be between $5,000,000 and $8,000,000 per year. Would it be ridiculous to expect that the city get a nibble from it, over and above the property taxes that landlords now pay?
After all, landlords get to run businesses in residential areas without having to consider each of those houses as a commercial entity, and avoid the business taxes that would normally accompany such enterprises.
It seems only fair that those who demand the most services pay the most for them.
If Shanie would look at the other end of the Coucil table, she would see an expert…an expert in neighborhood redevelopement, business planning, and housing finance…Deborah Campbell.
Why don’t the Police charge a service fee for every time they have to go to a landlords rental property over a disturbance complaint. Let’s say $150.00 a shot, that ought to help the landlords track tenant quality.
This is one of the sensible things I have read lately. What also galls me is a lot of the landlords renting to College students get an above average monthly rent from each occupant.
Ms. Shields deserve credit — whatever her reason - for at least mentioning the possibility that higher taxes may be necessary to cure the fiscal mess that Barrie Tilghman and the Dream Team has made during the past few years.
I agree with “Curious” that things like the Downtown Plaza improvements for traffic should be canned — the money ($500,000) can be much better spent for many other things.
This budget is probably loaded with lots of goodies for the select “Friends of Barrie” — the Downtown Plaza bunch (”Urban Salisbury”) being one of the larger hogs at the trough. While the FOB’s have gotten fat, out streets and roads have gone to pot, along with opther infrastructure. Now we are beginning to pay the piper for years of neglect and wasteful spending to reward Barrie’s political pals.
I think Ms. Shields is a realist, despite my frequent disagreement with her policy judgment.
Ms. SS deserves nothing! She is paid by us to serve us and protect our interests. Is that happening?
As much as I think landlords should pay their share, I can’t agree with penalizing landlords for crimes committed by the renters. Background checks may help, those who break the law must be held accountable themselves, make the guilty pay for the services with fines. There is much pork that can be cut, before we need to raise taxes. There are already laws on the books to shut down homes that, “maintain a common nuisance.” Enforce the laws on the books!
Excellent idea, no offense, but the Salisbury police I have seen, hardly look old enough to shave. Give them a nice raise and benefit package and try to keep them, at their age they could serve Salisbury well for many years to come if they can make a living. They go to work everyday and risk their life, the powers to be make sure they get their raises and perks, gotta take care of the police, they are a part of National Security.
Maybe Salisbury landlords would prefer that the county health department assist the city in housing inspection, many would be condemed on the spot.
Here’s an idea, cut the funding to turn the Plaza into a paved road. That’s $500,000. Give our officers a raise, especially those on the streets. My recollection is that there was still some catching up to do from a salary standpoint when the study was implemented last year. It is costly every time we lose a trained officer and we should do what we can to attract and retain good officers.