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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

A Letter To The Editor

CAN BILL MCCAIN DO MATH?

Today’s Daily Times quotes Wicomico County Councilman Bill McCain on the $60,000 salary of Rick Pollitt’s “PIO” that the Republican majority of the Council voted to cut from next year’s budget: “It’s .0005 of 1 percent of out $113 million budget.” McCain also said in the quote that he did the math. WRONG!

Of the entire budget amount, $113 million, it’s .05 percent. As a portion of 1 percent of the entire amount, which is the comparison mentioned by McCain, it’s about 5%. Let’s hope that Mr. McCain uses another calculator when he does appraisals or has someone check his numbers.

And his interpretation of the Wicomico County Charter gives much greater cause for concern. According to Mr. McCain, because the cut targets the salary of a particular position in the County administration, it violates the Council’s role in the budget process. WRONG!

The Charter clearly authorizes the Council to cut any item in the budget proposed by the County Executive. It would be ridiculous to provide authority to cut the proposed budget but not specify the item or items to be cut.

By voting against the budget in order to avoid the cut, the three Democrat members of the Council, McCain, David MacLeod and Sheree Sample-Hughes, effectively killed it and preserved the PIO position for another year. And the position could have been dropped from the budget proposed by Rick Pollitt, who chose to include it.

By the way, cutting the salary of the public information officer would have saved the taxpayers somewhat more than the amount mentioned by Mr. McCain if so-called fringe benefits and payroll taxes are counted, probably about $75,000.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do you expect. He's a freakin' socialist!

Anonymous said...

Maybe he did the math right and the Daily Times can't count zeros. Won't be the first time that paper couldn't cope with zeros.

Anonymous said...

This is freakin hilarious! Bill-you have been blogged you a$$.

Anonymous said...

Disgusting ---- The waste of taxpayers money is out of control--

Anonymous said...

If Pollitt, McCain or MacLeod run, he or they won't get my vote again.

I would vote for John Cannon for the County Council or Exec.

Concerned Retiree said...

They have always been idiots and beleive everybody else is as stupid as they are. Why should they not beleive this? The Politians have always had their way in spending Tax dollars and raising Taxes to allow them this freedom with no opposition. Now the people are speaking out and they are showing their stupidity and their knowledge of running a profitable business and / or organizations within a common sense budget.

Anonymous said...

Sir or Madam:

And what about the 3 Reps. (Barkovich, Holloway and Prettyman) who also voted against the budget -- after they had voted along with John Cannon to cut the $60,000 for Fineran. If those three had voted with Cannon again it would now be a done deal. Go figure.