Why The Proposed Wicomico Budget Amendment Is Bad Policy

On Tuesday, November 10th, the Wicomico County Council will hold a public hearing on County Executive Rick Pollitt’s proposed budget amendment.  Nominally, this budget amendment is to correct a revenue shortfall caused by a loss of over $6 million in state aid to the county.  In reality, Pollitt’s amendment is designed to force citizens to repeal the revenue cap and will result (within 7 – 19 months) with a tax increase for Wicomico homeowners and businesses.

If you don’t mind paying higher property taxes, you should attend Tuesday’s hearing and say so.  However, if you agree with me that the revenue cap should stay in place then you should go to Tuesday’s hearing and DEMAND that the county council vote this measure down and call on Pollitt to RESTRUCTURE the county government to live within its means.

I THOUGHT YOU WERE AGAINST THE REVENUE CAP?

I am.  Regular readers have heard me say time and again that I am opposed to the revenue cap.  However, I am opposed to the cap on principle.  I do not believe in legislation by initiative (which is what the cap was).  I also believe that we hold elections to elect a county government.  If our representatives do not do a good job (spend too much of OUR money, raise taxes, etc.) then we have the opportunity to replace them.

HOWEVER – We have the cap in place.  Do we wish to repeal that cap knowing that Pollitt has made no effort to restructure county government so that it may function within the terms of that revenue cap?  Repealing the cap now will simply result in giving bureaucrats an excuse to spend more money.

RICK POLLITT’S PLAN TO RAISE YOUR TAXES

County Executive Rick Pollitt has been semi-honest about this issue from the start.  He has always stated that he was opposed to the revenue cap.  I say that he has been “semi-honest” because he also claims that it is not his intent to raise taxes.  That is precisely what he intends to do.  If the cap was repealed tomorrow, the property taxes paid by Wicomico taxpayers would be higher than what they would be under the cap.  Whether Pollitt likes it or not – that is a TAX INCREASE!

Since Pollitt has taken office he has refused to re-structure the county’s government.  Pollitt likes to claim that “he wasn’t elected to ‘dismantle’ Wicomico County government.  No one has asked him to.

When leaders are faced with a fiscal crisis similar to the one currently faced by Pollitt one of the first things they do is go to zero based budgeting.  Pollitt has refused.  He now claims that he’ll be doing this NEXT YEAR.  Sorry Rick, next year is too late.

Under Pollitt’s “leadership” we have seen a “nibbling around the edges” approach to fiscal management.  Cut a little here, trim a little there.  When warned by the county’s contingent to the Maryland General Assembly that FY 2010 would be tough, Pollitt dismissed their call to action.

In a response to questions raised after last year’s legislative breakfast, Pollitt stated:

“At the December 6th (2008) legislative breakfast, a couple of people expressed concerns about the financial management of the County.  Given that other counties in Maryland were instituting cost cutting measures now to ensure a positive outcome for FY2009; I was asked why were were not.

The answer, simply put, is that we have followed the progress of our budget closely and we are confident that today’s conditions do not warrant such a step. …”

In preparing the FY2010 budget, Pollitt refused to take into account the high probability that Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s revenue projections were not realistic and that cuts in the state’s aid to counties would be coming.  Pollitt has also refused to demand cost cutting measures by the county’s Board of Education – which receives 53% of every county tax dollar.

OK – Maybe Rick isn’t doing as good a job as we hoped, but how is that a PLAN to raise our taxes?

Quite simply, Pollitt is playing a “fiscal trifecta”.  By using all available reserves and contingencies, not making full pension plan payments, and refusing to restructure the government he is setting the stage for a demand that either the revenue cap must repealed (with the automatic increase in taxes) or the county will face bankruptcy.

To accomplish this, Pollitt is using an tried and true ploy – the POLITICS OF FEAR:

UNLESS THE CAP IS REPEALED – your children won’t be educated.

UNLESS THE CAP IS REPEALED – your kids won’t have any parks to go to.

UNLESS THE CAP IS REPEALED – the ferries won’t run.

UNLESS THE CAP IS REPEALED – our roads will be a minefield of potholes.

UNLESS THE CAP IS REPEALED – prisoners will have to be released from our jail.

UNLESS THE CAP IS REPEALED – Anarchy will reign!

You get the point.

WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?

First, each one of us needs to make a decision:

• Are we willing to pay higher taxes to fund necessary services AND the bureaucratic profligacy of the Wicomico County government and the Board of Education?
• Are their some services that we are willing to do without or see curtailed?

I can’t make your decision for you.  However, here is my solution:

IF the Wicomico County government AND the Board of Education were managed efficiently then I would be willing to pay higher taxes.  HOWEVER, they are not.

This past spring we witnessed the WCBOE increase the taxpayers’ share of providing health care benefits to retirees.  While unemployment is rising, the WCBOE chose to hand out pay raises to many of its employees.  The county chose to furlough employees rather than reduce its workforce. (If the county can afford to give out furlough days, then it can obviously get by with less people on the taxpayers’ payroll)  We have seen the number of paid holidays actually INCREASE under Pollitt’s “leadership”.

Therefore, before I am willing to pay higher taxes I would like to see the following:

1. Before we talk about closing offices 1 – 2 days per week Pollitt could eliminate MOST paid holidays.  No birthdays off with pay.  No pay for Labor Day, Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Day, President’s Day (you get the point).  How much would that save?  While I bear no ill will towards our county employees, they should be happy to have jobs.  If they don’t like working under an efficiently run regime, I am quite confident that many of their unemployed neighbors would be happy to take their places.
2. Demanding more efficiency from department heads.  Recently, half of the county planning department was in court to watch a trial.  Why?  Beats the hell out of me.  If these folks don’t have work to do, why are the taxpayers paying them?  Why did the county fill two building inspector vacancies during the biggest construction downturn in memory?
3. Reducing or eliminating comp time and overtime.
4. Stop taking property off of the tax rolls.

If we have to reduce services, that’s fine.  I realize that every county service has some constituency.  I don’t use the ferries very often.  My father does.  I rarely use the parks.  To the best of my knowledge I’ve never used the services of the Health Department.  However, I do use the library.  Pollitt’s approach of “nibbling around the edges” isn’t designed to fix a fiscal problem as much as it’s designed to get various constituencies in an uproar because their favorite service is being cut.  Every department, every service, requires some level of overhead.  Therefore, we could save more money by simply eliminating some services (or finding other funding sources for them).

That said, some expenses can be cut in almost every department without cutting services.  I have always been interested to know how much money the Wicomico County Public Library pays to underwrite (sponsor) certain programming on SU’s public radio stations.  I’m a fan of WSDL, but that doesn’t mean I want tax money going to it.  While I know it isn’t much, it’s those little bits here and there that not only ad up to real money, but reinforce the notion that EVERY DEPARTMENT must strive to spend the taxpayers’ money wisely.

I’m reminded of Councilman Joe Holloway speaking out against wasteful spending a few years ago.  He used a $23 pen given to him by the county’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism as one example.  What was the response of the Tilghman Times and certain free spenders in county government?  They cried, “Much ado about nothing”.  Of course, they deliberately skipped over Holloway’s arguments for a tax cut and his argument against spending tax dollars to take more land OFF of the tax rolls.

LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST -

Reform the Wicomico County Board of Education!  Just last week I witnessed the WCBOE refuse to cut their travel budget instead of transferring money from SPECIAL EDUCATION.  The next time John Fredericksen or any board member tells me that “educating our children is their first concern”, I plan on calling that person a liar to his or her face!

The WCBOE and Pollitt claim that they are working to save $29 million over the next four years.  Does anyone really want to bet on that one?  If Pollitt was serious, why hasn’t he been demanding some fiscal sanity from the WCBOE before now?  The answer is a simple one.  He’s claiming to demand it now so that he can get re-elected, repeal the cap, raise taxes, and then keep feeding that bureaucratic beast down the street.

If Pollitt were serious about reforming the WCBOE he would demand most of surplus currently residing in the WCBOE’s “Rate Stabilization Fund”.  It’s reported to be over $5 million.  Applying that money, along with actually making some real changes in county government would cause the county government to finish the year in surplus.  He certainly isn’t hesitating to deplete ALL of the county’s insurance fund surplus.

Pollitt and the bureaucracy need to grasp the fact that they work for the taxpayer, NOT the other way around.

WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?

The council should not adopt Pollitt’s proposal.  They should send it back with a note demanding that he heed Councilwoman Stevie Prettyman’s call to restructure.  Pollitt’s attempt to practice the politics of fear and pit one group against another in an attempt to get the cap repealed and raise taxes is simply too transparent.

If we need to pay higher taxes, fine.  But before we do, I want to know that the tax dollars we are currently paying are being spent as efficiently as possible.  That obviously isn’t the present case.

If we have to pay higher taxes I want those taxes being spent by people who recognize that we are not a bottomless well to be drawn from so that bureaucracy can be perpetuated.

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