June 21, 2007
Well, here we are again! Thanks to the action of the County Commissioners on June 18, we have our fourth property tax increase in a little over four years, this one a whopping 12 cents per $100 valuation—more than the other three combined. It’s the kind of thing that makes someone question why he’s a Republican.
Throw in property revaluation, and in my household, that’s almost double what we paid in 2003!
It’s time now to start holding people accountable for just plain ol’ financial mismanagement. Our county simply does things that don’t need to be done, at least not right away. Have they never heard of prioritizing to match spending with available money?
I’m a Republican, and it pains me to point out that the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners has been under the control of Republicans for a lot of years. But somewhere, most of them have lost sight of the rock-solid old GOP value of “fiscal conservatism.” Now, their Republicanism looks more like quicksand.
There just isn’t anyone else to blame. And the only real recourse the average citizen in Caldwell County has is his or her vote in 2008.
I’m not suggesting the fiscal management problem occurred in the last year alone, but it was exacerbated by recent decisions to buy or build millions and millions of dollars of new county property on credit. The simple fact they overlooked is we can’t afford it!
Someone should have told these decision-makers about Caldwell County’s economic depression for the last 7-8 years as both furniture and textiles manufacturing have gone away—leaving the individual homeowner as primary bread-winner for county government.
Because jobs have left the county, citizens must also leave every day to pursue a livelihood in another county. Because there’s no real industry here, the people who do live here only live here—and pay their tax dollars liberally for that privilege.
When there’s a need, Commissioners look first to setting up more bureaucracy with more county employees, never considering that existing private companies might be able to meet those same needs at lower cost!
And they seem to love higher education—but after our kids are educated, what careers are here for them? We wind up educating our children to go elsewhere! And do our county employees really need those new buildings right now?
There’s nothing wrong with Caldwell County that can’t be cured by more jobs, especially industrial jobs.
I sincerely hope Google does help turn around our economic fortunes. Most of our unemployed, though, won’t be hired by Google—and it looks to a lot of people like Google came here just for a free ride. Even their construction dollars go mostly outside the county.
Why wasn’t some effort given much earlier to attracting an ethanol-producing plant in this day of seeking alternative fuels (aren’t federal grants available)? Or maybe some kind of military-related manufacturing facility?
Why couldn’t our leaders rely on the overwhelming influence they say Congressman Patrick McHenry has to bring a large federal prison here, like the one that located recently in eastern Tennessee, providing over 400 jobs? Or why not a new state prison like the one rumored for Alexander County?
Our commissioners are proud that the recent Caldwell tax rate is, by comparison, in the bottom quarter of the state’s 100 counties. But our unemployment rate is in the top four or five! Is there a “disconnect” there? Anything they might have overlooked?
The Commission in recent years just doesn’t know how to say “no.” County staff has gotten rubber stamps for anything it wants, especially in the last year. In the end, every project, or new group of employees, looks “vital” and “progressive,” and it gets a quick nod. But now it’s time to pay the bills.
In every case, commissioners vote to do things this county just cannot afford! What do they do in their own households when they think they need something but can’t afford it—buy it anyway? The vast majority of our citizens wouldn’t do that!
So they don’t really represent “us,” do they? They live in Fantasy Land.
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