DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Friday, August 28, 2009
Open Thread
Hey Joe, can you create an open thread or post on the County's current budget problems as a result of the cuts in local aid from the State? Moreover, how Mr. Pollitt plans on balancing the budget and current plans and potential costs for the new Bennett Middle School. I think that this would be a good outlet for citizens to have their voice heard by the County Executive regarding this matter.
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19 comments:
How much you want to bet that in the near future schools wont be free & the bus to get there on will cost to.
I doubt the County Exec reads this, much less responds to anon comments. If you want his ear, just go to his office. His door is always open.
Speaking from experience
I dont know if its true but have been told that the county roads workers are on a three week work month, is this true?
cut ferry hours immediately
If you want first hand info on what Pollitt is going to do, send him an email. He will reply to your questions and concerns within minutes. He'll also send a response at all hours of the day and night. Even on Sunday. I know this from experience.
10:42-
But does his response "within minutes" say anything but that BS about the rescinding the County tax cap. Meanwhile Pollitt has increased expenditure for special bonus salary and more land for parks like that sweetheart deal in Hebron a few months ago. It's no wonder there's no money left for that school.
Mr. Pollitt, we need to live within our means. By that, we all have our own needs and wants but everything at this point with the financial downturn has to be prioritized and decisions made from that list. It isn't fun tell the people something has to be cut but all should understand because everyone is cutting their own budgets. Good luck.
I'll repost this from yesterday:
Ok, let me start off by saying that I am County employee. I can proudly say that the department I work in (unfortunately I feel as though I cannot reveal myself or the department I work for, but most should know which department I am speaking of) has an extremely high efficiency rate and does not spend the tax payers' dollars frivolously. We could possibly cut back one employee and still get the same amount of work done, but it is not certain.
Now I know that there isn't a sole out there that wants to get laid off in these times; however, I feel as though cuts could be made elsewhere in the County's spending to reduce the number of lay offs. Is Mr. Pollitt going to be able to eliminate the need for furloughs and lay offs? Absolutely not, but it was the Council that removed the previous furloughs from the budget-had they not done so we would still be facing financial troubles, but at least it would have been a start. These things can't be completely pinned on Mr. Pollitt- council is equally responsible as well. Even though it directly affected me, I was disappointed in Council when they voted to remove the furloughs out of the budget. I knew that the next step would be more servere and lay offs would be more probable.
What bothers me the most is that nobody wants to touch educational spending. Education budgets CAN take a hit (within reason) and still provide a good quality education. Now I'm not talking about cutting teacher's salaries because I feel that they should actually be paid more, but the larger spending can be cut out. For instance, Bennett Middle and High Schools are situatated on an approximately 65 acre lot(s). Why acquire new land for the new Bennett Middle School? Why spend the extra money to purchase land when there is an ample amount of land along the newly redesigned East College Avenue? They would also have the old Bennett High to temporarily relocate the students while the new building is built. In addition, if the school is relocated, it is not only going to cost more to acquire the land, but the logistics involved with transporting students are going to be more costly (and that will be an on-going cost as well). Currently, many buses easily service Bennett Middle and High with the convenience of simply driving across a parking lot. As proposed, buses will have to drop middle school students off in Fruitland and then head on over to the new Bennett High to drop the high school students off OR have completely separate buses serving each school.
The Westside Collector is another frivolous decision. But don't worry, "it's bonded." It is still maintainence and effort that this County does not need! Not to mention is will serve a very specific portion of the County's population and not benefit the County as a whole.
Now, I know the comments are going to come in saying "oh, you're a County employee that doesn't want to lose your job." Of course I don't want to lose my job-I absolutely love my job and I have a wife and child at home too, but I don't want to lose my job because of some stupid decisions that much better, more economical alternatives (and trust me, my salary will not even come close to helping the budget-I don't get paid that much!). Cuts need to come from everywhere, even education (where appropriate) and the stupid pet projects of the upper echelon of the County.
I'm interested to see what happens. I'd like to see both, lay offs and cut spending, to show the residents of the County that adminstration can actually do something right for the people. But moreover, I would like to see the lay-offs come from the higher salaries in the County's payrole
It would be interesting to see the names of the higher ups and their salaries.
How about this. Maybe the County should ask every Department Head to review their inventory and start selling off just about everything they possibly can to get the funding the Governor took away.
I'm talking land, equipment, vehicles, you name it. If it's not nailed down, sell it. That goes for the Board of Education as well.
I like that idea Joe! (and that is coming from a County employee!) I bet that even if they did do that, the BOE would still weasel their way out of doing it!
Has anybody noticed that the budget requested by the BOE was adopted by the Executive and Council with NO CHANGES AT ALL?
Go here to see for yourself:
FY 2010 County Budget
Whatever Mark Thompson and John Fredericksen want they get. There is absolutely no belt tightening over at the BOE during this economic down time. In fact, they want even more!
how about you take out the $5,000,000 for the Bennett Middle Construction out of the capital improvement budget and put it off for a couple years-the students will survive and the teachers were the only ones to get raises this year so they should be ok for a year or so too.
Then take out the $4,100,000 for the Civc Center Parking acquistion and development and just allow them to use the Wicomico High School parking lots. I mean really, how long has the Civic Center survived all of these parking issues? A couple years won't hurt them either.
Put the West Side Collector on hold and save another $1.6 million. You could even hold off on the Civic Center Restoration and save $1.3.
Look, I just found $12 Million in the budget! If you look deeper you can find even more! It is not that hard to cut out the frivolous spending-we don't need these things in this kind of economy! We need to survive it as easy as possible, not make it harder so that more jobs are lost, higher taxes are paid and bad spending habits promoted!
Prediction:
Pollitt will find the money to "save" the wasteful Bennett school project just in time to take credit for doing that during his reelection campaign.
Don't doubt for a minute that the county exec doesn't read this! Anon 10:42 sounds just like him!
1:14 I'm a teacher in Wicomico and didn't get a raise. Some did, many did not. And where are these higher taxes you're complaining about. As Wicomico homeowners, we've enjoyed a reduction in property tax rates since 2000.
Try again...
"As proposed, buses will have to drop middle school students off in Fruitland.."
This from a high-level county employee (Anon 12:19)
Looks like this is already a done deal in Fruitland, no matter what they say about 'still considering the sites'.
I think it's been a done deal for YEARS-- just going through the motions of looking at other sites.
If it is true that road workers may only work 3 weeks a month, it would really suck to have read it somewhere before they tell you face to face. That would be 60 furlough days a year, they might as well lay you off and let you collect unemployment.
When did Bennett Middle get a new building i thought it was James M. Bennett getting the new building?
I am also a county employee, although I don't want to lose my job. I feel a 35 or 32 hour work week would be ok. as far as the furlough days since we are off for the holidays anyway, just don't pay us for them. Take away the 2 personal days and the birthday, we still have vacation and sick days. Cut all salaries that make more then $25,000 by 2- 5%. Which includes me.
To me Rick should have come to the employees also and ask for comments. He just went to the Department Heads, the employee are more likely to tell him how to save money.
I know Roads got cut 90% of their budget from the state. Which means the public will have to deal with the cut backs.
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