Scandal Brewing At PAC-14

We haven’t written much about PAC-14, Wicomico County’s public access cable channel in quite some time.  Because of that, many of you may think that all is well there.  Sadly, you would be mistaken.  The crew running PAC-14 (along with some of the vocal “supporters”) are just as conniving and deceitful as always.

We have to admit that we made a mistake.  We tried to be fair and allow PAC-14 Executive Director Mike Goodson and a majority of PAC-14’s board the opportunity to do what they said they were going to do.  Instead, this merry little band has decided that giving Wicomico taxpayers the “middle finger” is the best route to obtain their goals – and those goals have little to do with providing viewers an opportunity to watch their government in action and providing citizens the opportunity to produce local content.  No, the goal of the PAC-14 board is to siphon money from the taxpayers and build an entity that will eventually be handed over to Salisbury University so that taxpayers will no longer have even a marginal say as to how a portion of their tax dollars are being spent.

Thanks to elected officials like Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt, Salisbury Mayor Jim Ireton, Salisbury council members Louise Smith, Gary Comegys, and Shanie Shields, along with unelected “volunteers” such as Phil Tilghman, Elizabeth Bellavance and WCBOE President Mark Thompson, expect PAC-14 to blossom into an organization which wastes money (your money) on consultants and plans for grand schemes while refusing to adhere to the basic rules of transparency (which are in their own by-laws).

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Holloway Uncovers MORE Wasteful Spending at the BOE

Wicomico County Councilman Joe Holloway isn’t very popular with the bureaucrats over at the Wicomico County Board of Education (WCBOE).  He politely asks for information on their spending habits, they attempt to stonewall him, Holloway keeps fighting for the information, the bureaucrats are embarrassed.  At least the taxpayers get to find out how their dollars are being wasted.

Speaking last night at the monthly meeting of the Wicomico chapter of Americans for Prosperity, Holloway gave a brief re-cap of his term on the county council.  Holloway made one thing crystal clear – despite the protestations of people like Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt and several members of the county council, Wicomico County doesn’t have a REVENUE PROBLEM.  Wicomico County has a SPENDING PROBLEM.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

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.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Looters Loose in Wicomico County …

… County Council Proposes Plunder in the “Name of the People”

If you have ever read Frederic Bastiat’s The Law you are familiar with concept of legalized plunder.  If you have ever read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged you are familiar with the looting class.  If not, I heartily suggest you read them FAST.  THEFT in the name of “public good” has come to our little corner of the world.

Last Tuesday, the Democrat majority of the Wicomico County Council (sorry John Cannon, you no longer qualify as even a “Republican in Name Only”) voted to move forward with legislation that will strip farmers of their property rights.  The council’s proposal would reduce the number of lots which a parcel may be subdivided into.  It also ends the dreaded “cluster provision” which allowed farmers to sell parcels of land for development at greater density by requiring that more open space would be preserved.  The net effect of this proposal is to drastically reduce the value of a given parcel relative to its value if still developable.

Translation – the farmers pay so that certain developers and special interest groups may prosper and the lefty fringe can feel good about themselves.

Council members Gail Bartkovich, Joe Holloway and Stevie Prettyman stood their ground.  If Ag District landowners are to lose value in their greatest asset, they need to be compensated.  Additionally, the legislation itself appears to be seriously flawed.  This doesn’t seem to bother the socialist majority of the Wicomico County Council.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

County Council Moves Forward With Land Theft Bill

The Democrat majority of the Wicomico County Council moved forward today with legislation to strip Wicomico farmers of their property rights.  Council members Gail Bartkovich, Joe Holloway and Stevie Prettyman demanded that their names be removed from the legislation after noting that there was no mechanism to compensate farmers for the proposed land grab.

Moving the legislation to public hearing was approved by council members Bill McCain, Dave MacLeod, Sheree Sample-Hughes, and the council’s newest Dem John Cannon.  Sample-Hughes was at least honest enough to admit that there would NOT be any compensation mechanism in the legislation.

We’ll have a more detailed report tomorrow.  We are also waiting for a response from County Executive Rick Pollitt.  Pollitt has stated on at least two occasions that he would not support a bill that failed to compensate land owners for the loss of development rights.  I’m hoping that he sticks to his guns.

Sphere: Related Content

Daily Times Editorial – Let’s Whine But Don’t Allow for Any Solutions

This morning I read the lead Daily Times editorial with some amusement – Flaw Found in Homestead.  There is a flaw.  Unfortunately, it is not the flaw imagined by the editors of our local paper.  The flaw lies in a so-called “homestead tax credit” that allows primary residences to rise in value by as much as 10% per year.  In affect, Wicomico County has no homestead tax credit.

Assessments ALWAYS lag.  As much as I hate to admit it, Maryland’s system of re-assessment is pretty fair and efficient.  In many other states re-assessment is done at the whim of the local governing body.  You may go 10 years without a countywide reassessment and then you’re hit with a re-assessment where your home’s assessed value has risen 120%!  People are even less thrilled than they are in the not-so-Free State.

If you are a regular reader, you know that I am not a fan of the current Salisbury city government.  As much as it pains me to admit, they actually do a few things right.  One of those things is a ZERO based homestead tax credit.  As it has been explained to me, the assessed value of your home does not rise from the time you purchase it.  However, Wicomico County raises your assessment pretty much every year, unless we happen to be in a deep real estate downturn lasting more than three years.

There is a solution.  Earlier this year, Wicomico Councilwoman Stevie Prettyman proposed that the county look into reducing the amount a primary residence’s assessment is allowed to rise from 10% to 5%.  Given that our council includes the likes of Bill McCain – who believes that ANY discussion of tax relief is “ABSURD” – the proposal didn’t go very far.

I wonder how far it would have gone had the Daily Times provided some decent coverage of the issue when it came up, rather than merely whining about it now?

Sphere: Related Content

Wicomico County Council Gives Away YOUR Money …

… Why Not?  It’s Not Like It’s THEIR Money!

On Tuesday the left wing of the Wicomico County Council decided to give away more of the taxpayers’ money by eliminating the amusements tax for the Crown Sports Center.  The same members of the county council (John Cannon, Bill McCain, Dave MacLeod and Sheree Sample-Hughes) who have REFUSED to entertain any meaningful discussion of tax relief for ordinary citizens were quick to provide a handout to a specific local business.

To be fair, I should state that I’m in favor of eliminating the tax – but for everyone.  While I supported a measure to lower the rate to 4.5%, (which failed by a 4-3 vote), I prefer eliminating the tax.  I just want to eliminate it for everyone.  The difference is that I’m not a hypocrite about it.  During the debate over the current year’s budget, McCain stated that:

“(it is) … absurd to cut ANY county revenue source.”

This was a snide reference to Councilman Joe Holloway’s attempt to reduce the burden of the county’s income (or “piggyback”) tax on working Wicomico citizens.  At the time, I chastised McCain by reminding him that tax dollars are NOT “county revenue” but the TAXPAYERS’ MONEY.  While McCain is quick to vote for almost any bit of government spending, particularly if the money is going to his wife and her pals at the Board of Education, McCain simply won’t back any honest attempt to provide a lower, and better, and fairer tax structure for the people who elected him.
Read more

Sphere: Related Content

PAC-14 in the Dock Again

At today’s Wicomico County Council meeting PAC-14 is again up for discussion during the work session.  I can only hope that some progress is made in this matter.  Unfortunately, I’m not too optimistic.

As was noted after the council’s last meeting, Councilwoman Stevie Prettyman has made an excellent proposal.  A very modest PEG fee would be assessed to Comcast subscribers which would be used to partially fund PAC-14.  PAC-14 would incorporate as a 501c-3 non-profit with an independent board.  PAC-14 would enter into a contract (a “memorandum of understanding”) with the county (and hopefully the city of Salisbury) which would require, among other things, to carry all council meetings, Planning Commission hearings, etc.  PAC-14 could then raise all the money they said they could raise IF ONLY they were “independent”.

Why am I not optimistic?  Well, it seems that the so-called “Friends of PAC-14″ have been trying to play both sides against the middle on this one.  This little group with the likes of former councilman Phil Tilghman, former PAC-14 chair Dana Seiler (who quit after one meeting), and ace lefty activist Mike Pretl (along with the Daily Times) have been trying to sell the public a bill of goods.

First, we had the Daily Times prime the pump and imply that local government was somehow “trying to take over PAC-14″.  Inaccurate, but that’s not unusual for our local paper.

This was followed by Mike Pretle and a few others promoting a petition:
Read more

Sphere: Related Content

The CBF Wants to Steal Your Land!

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation wants to STEAL YOUR LAND!  No, this is not a joke.  No, this is not “satire”.  The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) wants to take away YOUR property rights … and they expect you to help them do it!

The CBF, along with the Wicomico Environmental Trust (WET) and a host of other well meaning enviro groups, want to down-zone agricultural land outside of the Salisbury “metro-core”.  The result will be a reduction in the value of theses lands.  After they’ve done it to the farmers, we could be next!

Their argument is both simple, and appealing:
Read more

Sphere: Related Content

PAC-14 – The Prettyman Proposal

After lunch yesterday afternoon the Wicomico County Council finally got around to the reason I bothered to show up – a discussion of PAC-14.  The conversation started off with a brief discussion of a proposal for a 4-4-1 board structure (4 members appointed by the county, 4 by Salisbury, and one joint appointment).  The conversations then moved to a “compromise” of having 3 members appointed by the county, 3 by the city and 3 by the “community” (or “membership).

One problem with the 3-3-3 structure was when to allow the “membership” to have board seats.  Should it be right away?  Should it be after they reached a certain number of members?  Should it be after the “membership” showed the ability to raise a certain amount of funds to aid in the operation of PAC-14?  There didn’t seem to be a real consensus as to when that should occur.

At this point Councilwoman Stevie Prettyman (R-2) spoke up.  She wanted to offer a different solution for people to think about:

Set a PEG fee and let that provide the funding for PAC-14.  Government could then get totally out of PAC-14.

She was clear that she wasn’t advocating for any particular solution, but that the council should at least think about it.

Admittedly, this was not the solution that I was looking for.  I happened to be more in agreement with a form of the 3-3-3 proposal.  However, Prettyman’s proposal is not only intriguing – it has merit.
Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Next Page »