“The time has come for our community to consider the quality of public services we expect and demand from our county and then make the necessary commitment to pay for them.” - Rick Pollitt
One must wonder what this means. On the surface it sounds reasonable I suppose, but let's take a deeper look at the Wicomico County's financial woes and Rick's history and where he is going with all of this rhetoric.
First, here is the entire presentation of his proposal On page 3; Rick claims that Property Tax receipts are controlled by the Revenue Cap. Only partially true Rick. Who among us has not had higher property tax bills in the last couple of years? That is called higher tax revenue. The reason is simply our property assessments have gone up significantly. This has happened at the same time that property values have diminished by a large margin. It's no secret that Pollitt wants to repeal the revenue cap. He has publicly stated as much. From this, I assess he desires to cover his inability to deal with the financial problems of this county. He hasn't been shy about it either, as he has been a public proponent for repealing the revenue cap since his election.
Now his solution is to take most of the money from our reserves, leaving 17 M left over, I presume, to get him through the next election, as he sits back to let the council sort out the immediate cuts. The problem is, by his own presentation, is that we will have an estimated 33 Million Dollar budget shortfall in FY11 through FY14. What is his solution for that shortfall? No one knows.Pollitt claimed, during his last campaign, that he worked from scratch in setting the city of Fruitland’s annual budgets. If that were true, wouldn’t he have noticed the inefficient in county programs and eliminated them after three years in that office? No. Suddenly we have a huge crisis's on our hands and Pollitt chooses to hang the Wicomico County Council out to dry. Better them than him. All he has to do is propose to take all the reserves and get himself through FY210 and let the council take the fall for the cuts.
Regardless, Pollict has done little to counter act the financial storm that has been brewing for some time. Not even bothering to to put up the needed defensive political sand bags on the assault of our poultry farmers , which is one of the undisputed largest industry in our community. I can't say the council has made much effort to create a better business climate either. Not that being #2 state in the country for worse business enviroment helps much. Clearly the leadership in our state has set the tone.
A large part of the current problem can be squarely attributed to the Maintenance Of Effort
requirement.In short, Mr. Pollitt's refusal to take on the state for requirement that the county provide 46% of it's revenue or $50,000,000 to the BOE, without any control of that budget, or any demand the BOE share in the finical crisis is problematic. A band aid measure by the council was made earlier this year for a Maintenance of Effort Waiver of $2,000,000 Transferring $2 million from the school system’s school construction fund – built from surplus funds from prior years’ appropriations and not from this year’s budget. “ (It) appears consistent with the State education law and the purpose of that fund” was the determination by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, after a legal matter regarding the move.
A deeper look at the county structure is required to adaquately deal with this financial problem. Unfortunately Pollitts' proposal is a band aid approach and appears to be a Perfect Storm to repeal the Revenue Cap. Instead of dealing with the issue of overgrown government and unrealistic state demands for funding for an entity the tax payer or the council has no budget control of, Pollitt chooses to pacify. What Wicomico needs is someone who will fight for this county and make the hard decisions that are best for our collective future.
To quote Ted Shea -- "we gotta make them feel the pain."
Cross posted at Right Coast
36 comments:
Pollitt stated: "The time has come for our community to consider the quality of public services we expect and demand from our county and then make the necessary commitment to pay for them.”
No, Rick. You should be saying something more like this:
"The time has come for our community to consider the quantity of public services we expect and demand from our county, and then make the necessary sacrifices needed to maintain only those services which we can still afford"
We all are having to do with much less these days, and County government and the services provided by such is no exception.
Its time for the County to live within its means, and do what is necessary to achieve that goal. If you can't muster the strength to do this, then get the heck out, and let someone else who can fulfill this responsibility!
If Rick wants to be the Good Ole Boy with his buddies and not do his job then the Council has to do their job. I look at it that if a budget is summitted that is unreasonable and not a balanced budget then that shows incompentence on behalf of the Administrator and the ones that assisted in putting together the budget. I would not hold the Council accountable as long as they accomplish what they were elected to do cut cut cut. The ones who are affraid to do this needs to be removed from elected office. Rick never learned from his mistakes in the Fruitland budget. If he did and knew what a budget means would look at the projected expenses and see that reductions are needed and take action as soon as possible. He did not and continued to spend spend spend. The Revenue Cap needs to remain in place. What percentage has our taxes increased when you factor in the tax increase imposed plus the percentage that is being paid on the inflated value while the values have decreased? The County and State has already increased our taxes severly by a very high percentage when these factors are included. I will gladly assit in fixing the budget using common sense and not political snowballing.
Wic-o-mic-o county will be flat busted in two years.
Cut the pay of Coumty employees and reduce services, the tax cap will never go away because we the tax payers say so.
The way I understand the issue of "Maintenance of Effort" is it is establishes by our state representatives in Annapolis and is essentially State Law. The only way Counties in the State of Maryland will be able to seek relief from MoE is if Maryland voters vote in a majority of anti-education representatives. And until that occurs, all Maryland Counties will continue to experience year-after-year increases in their school budgets.
Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe this is a basic summary of "Maintenance of Effort".
Their union is so strong it wont break. They have connections in places.
5:25 "cut the pay of county employees"???? well then tell us what type of person do you want as a "county employee"? What type of employee do you feel should be in place to provide YOU services and others in your family? Tell us. And then tell us what type of qualifications should they have. Do you want college educated married employees that are willing to work for $8.00 an hour? Do you want uneducated psuedo rednecks working at minimum wage? Give me a break. You get what you pay for and just because you haven't invested the time and money in a quality education and a good work ethic to try to better yourself while trying to help the county, that's your fault not mine. I want TOP QUALITY people running things and not someone like the jerk in Delmar. And I am willing to pay them a fair market value wage for their representation of us. "Cut their pay".. right....that's really going to solve things. You may have had a little more credibility if you had suggesting cutting POSITIONS instead of cutting pay. Think about it.
The council has no other option other than make the cuts that are necessary. It isn't in Rick to cut the services because of his political beliefs. That isn't saying that he isn't a good person but he just can't make the changes in the budget that are needed to reduce the size of government.
6:12 What department do you work for?
The position of County Exec was a big mistake. It has cost the tax payers a ton of money and we have gotten nothing to show for it but BS and whining and crying about the revenue cap. If he wants to cut salaries than he should start with his own. You never hear about those at the top cutting themselves of anything and that goes from DC on down. We thought it was going to be a good thing, now that we have found out it was not and have the evidence of zero performance, get rid of the office and all of the expenses that goes with it.obidsche
From what I hear, the BOE is making plans for drastic cuts next year. Although some of you think that it should be done now, it can't. Annapolis sets that policy.
The BOE is asking schools to suggest cuts for next year, the central office is being asked to drastically cut budgets and programs, and they are looking at not filling positions from this year's retirees. Maybe up to 75 positions including school and central office.
From what I heard, the BOE is looking to cut between 5-7 million dollars next year.
So for all of you that say the BOE is not feeling the cuts, just wait. Then you can complain because your kids class size will be 30, your child may have to walk 1.5 miles to school, the teachers won't have supplies and us parents will have to foot the bill. And this is just a start.
Think it is bad now, just wait. Rickie is right...the storm isn't even on the radar yet.
5:15 and 5:25, you're both right.
It will be many, many years before Wicomico County flat broke. Actually, flat broke is realistically impossible. But what will happen is the public will witness a rapid reduction in service leading to the outright elimination of many those services, The library, parks and recreation, Wicomico nursing home, and senior programs will slowly become the first to be outright eliminated. During that time minimal road maintenance will be provided ultimately leading to road maintenance only consisting of filling pot holes. The revenue cap was purposely written to create a ever widening cap between shrinking revenues against increasing costs.
Wicomico County employees will never see another pay raise and will likely see continued reductions in pay. In time each individual employee from the department head right down through the basic laborer will need to determine if it is worth working for Wicomico County. That is what is going to drive the rapid decline and elimination of many services. Existing employees are either going to retire or are going to leave. Isn't this what 5:25 wants to happen? Sure new, but fewer, employees will be hired to replace those longtime employees who will retire or leave, but employment with Wicomico County will become a revolving door. In time, it will simply suck working for Wicomico County and the City of Salisbury.
In 10 years Wicomico County and the City of Salisbury will be to Maryland what Detroit is to Michigan. A getto of low income, government assisted residents with high crime. And sadly, there is really nothing that Pollitt, Ireton, or a any future elected Executive or Mayor are going to be able to do to change this.
The in 10 years i the revenue cap is lifted, Wicomico County and the public will have already lost 18 years. But as long as Maryland keeps repaving Rt 50 and we keep a loaded shotgun close at all times. We'll be ok.
I briefed that over and its sounnds like BROKE to me.
Broke
Broke
Broke.
7:54 as long as it's not my taxes. Ya wanna pay for increased salieries and the like, be my guest.
Reference 7:34
You are either Pollitt or one of his cronies.
We'll see what the people decide when he stands for reelection.
When the revenue cap was enacted the County's budget was 98 million dollars. Today it stands at just under 125 million dollars. In other words the budget has increased 21.6% from 1999 until 2009 or about 10 years. That is phenomenal growth. So the problem is not a taxing problem . . .we have a spending problem.
That is why the gentlemen who spoke at the hearing mentioned about the public lacking information being available on the web. The status quo doesn't want you to see these figures.
Bottom line is when Politians have to "Feel The Pain", like Ted Shea and the rest of the Politians beleive is the only way to get what they want, nothing will be done. WBOE has a very strong supportor in Annapolis. That is Norman COnway. when he was with WBOE he created several money positions for his "Good Ole Boys". Since he has been in Annapolis he has done every thing he possibly can to promote more money for Education and force it on the Counties to divert it from the State budget. This has always been an underhanded tactic of Politians to get what they want and have an excuse that they did nothing in Annapolis or DC, it was the Counties. Open your eyes people.
If the board of ed was really trying to save money, how about dropping every luxury car lease paid for with public funds?
Also, a 21% increase over 10 years is not a lot. It's about 2% per year. Inflation during this period is much higher than that. In real dollar terms it has actually declined a bit year over year.
I don't know about Rick Pollitt but when I cut a cake, I cut from the top down. Maybe he should take lessons from his wife on cutting things.
The biggest cloak is in the second chart where over half of our tax money is paid to the BOE and not defined.
BOE, I want to see your budget numbers in dollar amounts broken down to at least 40 divisions.
Anyone keeping an ear or an eye on the propposed land grab commision?
6:12 PM, I hate be the one to tell you, but Wicomico County is going down the toilet and you and the rest of the employees are be flushed along with the sh*^ from Salisbury.
"Unfortunately Pollitts' proposal is a band aid approach and appears to be a Perfect Storm to repeal the Revenue Cap. "
That does not make any sense.
Response to 7:34
You are dead wrong. The fiscal operating budget for FY2008 was $131,950,578 - (reference www.mdcouties.org)- MACO website -So if the operating budget was 98 million dollars when the revenue cap was enacted then there was a significant increase in revenues.
You don't have a case for Wicomico's budget not gaining sufficient revenues. The problem lies squarely in spending.
But getting back to the graph Pollitt submitted in his budget documents - (See graph shown on SBYnews) - you'll notice he hid the true budget revenue figures for FY2008.
The fellow testifing before the Budget Hearing also cited this reason that Pollitt wasn't supplying sufficient information.
Bottom line - he has 'cherry-picked' his data.
Check your math. $500,000,000 to the Board of Education?!?!
Pollitt,
Due to increased assessments you have more to spend every year, however you manage to spend that and still demand more. Any damned fool could run the county if given as much money as he/she would like.
You were elected because people thought that you could do the job.
If you can't, step aside and let us find someone who can!!!
Photon
This budget situationis really sad and it's a reflection on the County Administrator and Council. If Henry Parker were still in charge this budget problem would not exist, very bad management of county funds.
The BOE needs to audited. We need to know where every dime goes. Julie certainly is stirring things up and say, "It's about time!"
Did you see the article on STEM in the DT today? The title of Dave Harner who works at the central office is "Coordinator of Secondary Initiatives." What in the world is that? If STEM is mainly math and science, let Ann Ashe and Brian Raygor be in charge of it. Ann already has a "Coordinator of Math, Pre-K through grade 8" to do everything except high school math. Why can't she do STEM? Joe should print the titles of the jobs in facilities at the Central Office if he wants to give the public something to protest. Get rid of one of the public relations people, the coordinator of staff development, the coordinator of math, the coordinator of reading, Cathy Townsend's full-time helper who was supposed to be a part-time "expert" on school climate, and dozens of other jobs. How can the Bd. keep creating positions?
3:08 PM
Explain????
12:42 what's a couple of zeros anyway? (AT THIS POINT) but the graph and the story say 50,000,000 I thought.
We are so good at blaming. The true blame must be placed on the citizens of this county. The citizens must begin by electing folks who will have an unselfish interest in this county. We continue to elect inexperienced people to undertake major tasks. Just take a good look at the members of the county council. They serve essentially as proof readers of critical documents and make announcements of upcoming events in the community. They have no idea what to do. Ever so often poor Joe Holloway will ask a pointless question; Prettyman is so busy looking at the cameras; Sample is as lost as a bedbug in the winter. Elect better people and you'll get better results.
anonymous 6:54, take a good hard look at what you just said!
You're ANONYMOUS while ALL of the people mentioned in your comment put their names and reputations on the line to represent even those Idiots who like to critisize anonymously.
Why don't YOU man up, offer your full name and then answer to the tens of thousands of people visiting every day what YOU would do to change your community.
I'm confident there will be no response, (by you anyway) to my reply.
6:54
Instead of critizing those who already serve the public you should step up to the plate and run in next years' election.
If you want to act like a bulldog and attack the elected officials then do it on the issues and not,in your opinion,on pointless questions that are asked by "poor Joe Holloway." He is one member that has the backbone to ask some of the hard question.
And for the ladies you tried to put down(Prettyman and Sample-Hughes) ignore that previous post. Guess some still have gender bias. You both are very strong women and serve the citizens well. Thank you.
5:04 Will you please explain? I suspect you have some very valuable information that will help this county with this financial situation. 7:37 I couldn't agee with you more. Holloway, Sample-Hughes, Prettyman seem to be the ones who realize what is really happening in Wicomico. Thanks for standing firm for your convictions.
BOE is a joke anyway, the teachers dont care they draw a salary and teach kids everything they can to make them liberal chumps, bleeding heart liberals so they can make more get more and be on top like the rest of the liberals.
I say your better off, safer and kids get a better education if you home school them anyway. Less chance of kid getting stabbed, taught so we dont hurt the feelings of others, not taught about God.
I have worked in school systems, teachers are either afraid or too lazy to teach. Best paid job to do nothing I have ever seen. You get summers off and collect pay check and really teach nothing, more like babysitters.
If mom stayed home like in the old days, people spent within their means instead of outside it, kids would be accounted for, and taught properly.
50Million for BOE, give me a break....
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