Join Me in the Cheap Seats

Do we trust our government? That is the question that is at the root of this week’s debate. The Budget Committee met for their first go at the the budget for 2015-2016 and much of their discussion centered around what, if any, amount were they comfortable raising property tax. Across the board, Committee Members expressed their desire to keep property tax at the same rate. They also recognized that, without the recent increase to the wheel tax, the financial hole would be just too deep to crawl out of.

Upon reading about this meeting, some felt that the Budget Committee was trying to push the public to let the wheel tax stand. While it is certain that they, the Committee, would rather the issue not go to vote, I don’t think that anybody at that table thought they were getting the easy way out. It is true that they had already faced one beast, in the form of the wheel tax increase and public wrath that accompanied that decision, another one is most assuredly waiting at the door. If the people choose to let the wheel tax increase pass unchallenged, the Budget Committee will still be faced with a multi million dollar deficit. They have set a collective goal to not impose a property tax increase on top of a wheel tax increase but this is a budget sinking in quick sand. I believe that they are earnest in their desire to take a property tax increase off of the table. But, I wonder if they are over reaching what they can do. This is a deep, eight year, financial hole that we find ourselves in and it will not be easily filled.

Jefferson County Finance Director Potts said that he believes that it can be done, but that there can be no sacred cows, meaning no department is safe from cuts and some may be not only painful, but deadly. My question is not about their commitment to make whatever cuts are necessary, I believe that they are committed to walking the hard road, my question is more to the validity of postponement of what we know is coming, if not this year, than the next or the next. Years ago, before the first brick was laid for Mt Horeb Elementary School, former Finance Director Long estimated that it would take in the neighborhood of 45 pennies on the tax rate to pay for the originally proposed plan. Of course, numbers have changed since that first $60 plus million , but not really that much. We still owe the better side of $50 million dollars for the building program. Our debt has changed, significantly, but we have not adjusted for our debt. And so, we find ourselves deep, deep in the hole. A hole that is not going to begin to fill in for another eight years.

I believe that the Budget Committee is willing to cut every department, including the Department of Education, the Sheriff and every other County department, to the bone. I believe that the Budget Committee is willing to eliminate funding of most, if not all, non profits. I believe that the Budget Committee is willing to look toward other avenues of tax revenue. I believe that it will take all that, and possibly more, to balance this budget. But, what of next year, and the next, and the next. Some increased can’t be helped, they are simply the cost of living and doing business. After we have cut to the bone, where do we go next? Looking at other revenue sources is a great idea and should be explored. But how fast can we reap any revenue from those avenues? I fear that, once again, we are pushing off the inevitable and we have done that for so many years. I ask this question-Is it better to have small, steady property tax increases or would we rather have a large increase, next year or the next? Another question would be-Is what we are losing worth ten or twenty bucks a year to the average property owner?

This is the time that citizens of Jefferson County should be making their wishes known. Granted, Budget Committee meetings are often long and tedious, but if citizens will not let their voice be heard before the vote, should they complain when it is not heard after the vote? It is easy to be an arm chair coach. Perhaps it is time that we put a little skin in the game before the final whistle. After all, citizens will certainly have skin the game after all the voting is said and done. And sometimes, great ideas come from unlikely places, sometimes even from the cheap seats.