For starters, many key statements were made at Tuesday's County Council Meeting that have been conveniently ignored by the Daily Times. I wish I could have delivered this sooner but things have been quite busy around here.
OK, first of all, the WBOE takes up just about 50% of the County's entire Budget. That being said, when the Governor delivers his final Budget for the State, the Board of Education Budget is set in stone, period. NOTHING, and I do mean NOTHING can change throughout the rest of the entire year.
The Teacher's Union supported O'Malley 100% and one thing is for sure, as stated in previous BOE articles we have provided, they got everything they ever dreamed of, (and more) simply because they supported this man O'Malley. That being said, I don't care how much they cut DURING the fiscal year, the balance of the 50%, City/County Employees and other projects get dumped, period and that's ALL they have to work with.
So for those of you wondering and or commenting as to why the BOE isn't being cut, there's NOTHING you or anyone else can do about that. So while there's even recent mention about another SCAM going on within the WBOE right now, (which has been confirmed and Salisbury News will provide an exclusive story on it in the very near future) these people laugh all the way to the Bank while other employees and departments, (ultimately you) take to punches.
Joe Holloway was right when he mentioned that the County must stop all talks on a new Library and Civic Center. Pollitt even mentioned that services like the County Library may even be closed on certain days to make up for the losses in revenue down the road.
Things are more than just tight Folks. I have been telling you for years, this is more serious than anyone ever dreamed and we're living on CREDIT, not what we actually own. Back in the big depression there was no such thing as a Credit Card. Did you ever wonder how entire Towns became what they called back in the day, "Ghost Towns." Well, put on that seat belt Folks because you're going to see that happening once again throughout America and places like the Eastern Shore will get hit hard. There's no real Industry here and there's very little chance anyone is going to invest in this area.
We overbuilt far too fast and we had leaders like Barrie Tilghman, Gary Comegys, Mike Dunn, Lynn Cathcart, who took advantage of government funds through TIF's, Developer Reimbursements, Grants, you name it, they begged and borrowed and used comparisons like Rockville on a regular basis hoping people would believe we could be just as nice.
Well, we don't have the tax base of metropolitan areas like Rockville. We don't have the businesses like Rockville. We don't have the schools like Rockville. We are the Eastern Shore with beautiful landscapes, perhaps like the Patomac USED to be. People like Tilghman, Comegys, Dunn, Pollitt aren't preserving our landscapes. Instead, they have been FOOLING everyone to believe we can borrow all this money and perhaps become something like Rockville and they sold everyone on believing we deserve things like a $14,000,000.00 Fire Palace and multi million dollar Fire Trucks.
Now we deserve new Schools, yet we don't have the money to pay for them. I travel down Rt. 13 to Virginia all the time. I make it a point many times to pull off Rt. 13 and travel the back roads to see what life is like in these little Towns. My God Folks, have you ever done that. Have you ever seen the Schools located in these small Towns. Bennett Middle School is a palace, compared to what I have seen elsewhere.
Mind you, the money has to come from somewhere but when you're blowing 50% of your entire Budget on one thing like education and your taxes keep going through the roof and our own Government allows property values that were $50,000.00 10 years ago to go up as high and $350,000.00 today for that same piece of property, it's no wonder we're in deep trouble, especially on the Eastern Shore!
We're taxed out and many are losing their homes because of this false economy. We raised our property values like we are Rockville, we started building new schools and now we're in deep sh!t financially. It's time we get a Governor in Office who will stand up to the WBOE and say, you know what, the money just isn't there, we're cutting you 25% right off the top. Instead, we allow our Country to be run off of politicians who cut deals with Teachers Unions so they can get elected, (how about ACORN) all so we get get one person into Office.
We need to look at things on a state level and national level and go back to basics. Let every state have a Rockville and leave it like that. If someone can afford to live there, MOVE! However, we ALL chose to come to the Eastern Shore because of the landscape and charm and we must STOP our representatives into brainwashing so many into believing we deserve more and better.
This Blog offers a format that has never been provided before. First of all, articles like this one would never come up in the Daily Times and never even considered for television news. You get the chance to come together and network on ideas and if you don't agree you get to voice your opinion. If you agree, well, for once you get to place pressure on your elected officials to make changes like never before.
Hopefully many of you have read this article all the way through and understand that the majority of the people on the Eastern Shore can't afford any more of this crap. Right now, (IMHO) the main focus needs to be on Crime. Give the Police the resources they need to fight crime because things are NOT going to get any better over the next 5 years. We need safe communities and while we're educating our youth, we need a new Governor who will NOT set the BOE Budget in stone as they need to be more affected than the Police any day of the week. I will personally no longer stand to hear our Mayor state they need to cut ANY MORE funding from the SPD in any way, shape or form.
I could go on forever but I'll stop here and look with great interest to your comments.
21 comments:
Rockville SUCKS! So does Salisbury in a lot of ways, but at least it has potential - Rockville is what it is and nothing's going to ever make it better.
Excellent article Joe.
The local politicians and developers are living on credit and it will lead to ruin.
We must say no to more spending.
We must begin to save money - not spend on credit.
We should be using less than our budget.
Joe-
You are sooo on the money. This buy now pay later mentality that has evolved over the past 30 years has finally come to a head. The results of an immediate gratification society. Maybe this is what it takes to re-evaluate the glutany of this lifestyle and get back to basics. A Darwin test of survival of the fittest.
Very, very well worded! I completely agree, as have all my past lengthy post regarding the BOE and Wicomico's spending. Like I said, education CAN BE CUT and a quality education can still be provided. We are asking you to trim the fat not the meat! Perhaps if they want to fully fund Education budgets then they should at least include a reeeeeeally good economics program in our children's education....and then the politicians should attend to learn a thing or two!! Rick Pollitt and the majority of the Council cerainly DO NOT have my vote for re-election!
Way to go, Joe. You hit the nails on the heads. Too many of our past and present "leaders" equate spending with progress. We don't always need either. With the local employment infrastructure in the tank, we're looking at some very hard times to come, ones that won't bear the weight of the kind of spending that Tilghman, Dunn, Comegys, Cathcart and (sigh) Shields have arranged for us to have for the next sixty years.
By the way, how are the WWTP and the Villages at Salisbury Lake (Old Mall)projects coming along?
I was wondering how many councel members have kids? And how many of them attend or attended a public school? Just a question.
But it is for the Kids LOL F/U BOE You are the only county employees to get a raise while others are taking a hit. Yea they got it tough.
When you ride by that county roads guy out in 100% temps fixing your street. O ffer him a glass of water at the very least. Oh thats right you educate. Sorry had you mixed up with someone who gives a shit. Arrogant, pompous, asses.
APA new title to those that feel entiltled.
Sorry Joe they have pissed me off this time around. They get caught hiding funds from the County every year. The sad truth is they are so much smarter than the county council it is almost comical.
Oh where is Joe Hollaway with all of his great questions as to why the B.O.E. got the steps other county workers did not. The freaking council is talking about pay cuts for county emp. yet the BOE had it in thier budget. You retards at the County Council need to go this time around. I am sure four of you are gone anyway.
WTF people wake up.
I worked in the intelligence community for most of my adult life and learned what can happen when you budget for new initiatives without planning for their support and upkeep. For years, DoD got whatever they wanted with little question but Congress suddenly put a cap on their maintenance spending. They still wanted to buy things but had to do it within their maintenance spending limit. It was very hard for DoD to adjust to this kind of thinking. Very simply, you can't submit a budget to acquire something without including the funds needed to maintain it. For example, if you build a $10M firehouse you need to know up front the yearly cost of maintenance. If that comes to be $100,000 per year, the first year budget submission should be $1,100,000.
I can't be specific about Salisbury but I've watched the Town of Ocean City chase Grants to build and acquire things only to realize the restrooms needed to be kept locked because there was no additional operating budget to pay cleaning people. Homeland Security bought OC a Starwars class Communications Command vehicle that sat outside in the weather for a year because there was no garage space to store it.
So, when somebody wants (procurement) money to build a new library, they must also identify the fixed (maintenance) money that will need to be included in the operating budget for future years. If you can't afford the additional operating budget, you can't afford the library. If the State wanted to give Blackberry devices to everyone in the SPD, does the city have the money to pay the monthly subscription costs?
This is the only way to but a stop to a escalating budget that seems to grow forever.
Joe has done a superb job in his summation of the State of our local economy.
Just take a look around you at the hordes and hordes of Government buildings that have been built. The new electric bills alone would be enough to 'stun an elephant'.
For example:
1. New State Multi-purpose building -(Court House)
2. Fairly new Health Department -(former J C Penny Bldg.)
3. Hordes and Hordes of ancillary rental facilities -(Case-in-point former ES Adkins Bldg., Shore-up facilities across from ED Supply).
4. Shore-up near Brick Kiln Landfill
5. Former Allenwood Shopping Center -(State pd. $300k more than appraised value)
6. Old Tri-State Electrical Supplies and surrounding confiscations.
7. Multiple residential properties on College Avenue and Camden Avenue
8. Noland Supply - gone to college to.
9. JMB school - millions more spent
10. Elaborate Firehouse construction to the boondoggle of millions.
The list goes on and on. Don't the leaders recognize the foolishness in their obsessive spending?
What a disaster. Salisbury really needs a name change - DISASTER.
Two comments...
Firstly, it wasn't an article or news piece, Joe, its an opinion you expressed...
Secondly, there isn't a sole at the Bord of Ed or an employee of the Board of Ed that is laughing "all the way to the Bank while other employees take to(sic)punches". They are relieved perhaps, but not laughing at all. Its serious, sad and they know it.
"stop all talks on a new library or civic center"....how does that make any sense at all? A total lack of planning and proper allocation of resources over decades has lead to the failing condition of those building and alot of our other infrastructure.
There is no doubt at all that we cannot currently afford more spending...and that environment will not change for some time in my opinion.
But you have to plan for the future.You have to be prepared to take action quickly when opportunities present themselves.
Discussing our needs and plans to address those needs makes perfect sense.
And to top all this off Phil Tilghman and his sidekick Pretl are coming back with that plan to change PAC 14 into a "community media center" with money from the County and City of Salisbury.
Planning for the future is one thing, but the county and city get so sucked up into all of these espensive impact and analysis studies! Most of which are outsourced for hundreds of thousands to companies ACROSS THE BRIDGE that don't even know what this area is like. Companies in the DC/Baltimore area charge $200-300/hr for engineering analysis when it cost half that here on the Shore! To those people, Salisbury/Wicomico is nothing-It's just a town they BYPASS on the way to the beach. Who knows this area best? THE PEOPLE THAT LIVE HERE! Why does our local government rely on the opinion of companies located hours away?! Alot of these "studies" could also be done in-house. I bet they haven't thought about saving some jobs and cutting the budget that way! They probably would want to pay for a study to analyze the effects of outsourcing studies across the Bay vs. doing them in house...
3:23...."in house " studies are not very often as objective as they should be and are very often chracterized as self serving..Any entity doing an objective study would , as part of it's due diligence, do an in depth study of the area and it's citizens.
The key is to obtain an objective, valid study at the lowest possible cost.
anonymous 3:33, yeah, try teaching that to Pam Oland or Bill Gordy!
The one thing I have to sat about Rockville is that I was in their downtown area reading just a few months ago and loved it, no problems, tons of people around, kids everywhere.
Four months ago I went to the city park here and got about 1/2 hour into reading and then 7 kids started throwing sticks at me and it took 25 minutes for the police to come.
The correct spelling is Potomac.
Thanks wicomico county
I apreciate the pay check you give me every month.
A teacher
PS I bust my back side to teach your spoiled rotton kids and get absolutely no gratitude for the difficult job I do.
550, I bust my backside 10 hours a day and throughout the year bidding jobs and not getting any in construction and don't get paid at all. zero. zilch. none. free estimates. for months. When there are jobs on the table to even bid.
Self employed.
6:24 PM, Maybe your bidding is too high, people always get screwed by builders, so they get more than 3 estimates. Try lowering your prices and you may get more jobs! If this doesn't work try to get a state job. Good luck,
I am a teacher and have never heard so many jealous people speak evil against teachers. Teachers are the cream of the crop and teach your children, your most precious possession. So sacrifice and give us what we need to make a difference in the students' lives. Period.Stay home more and give quality time to your family. You will save money too.Tighten your belt and see if it doesn't make a positive difference in your framily relationships.
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