WOW, where do I start! Perhaps the title goes too far but in essence it's a reality. You might say Wicomico County is in the very beginning stages of restructuring, or "TDR" Trouble Debt Restructuring.
Last week our former Editor GA Harrison confronted County Executive Rick Pollitt in his budget meeting and asked where the amendment was referencing the $14.2 million down to $7 million to meet maintenance of effort. Rick was clearly puzzled when GA said, I have looked everywhere and I cannot find such an amendment.
There was an amendment but it never got passed to get the state to reduce the numbers to help assist the County to meet MOE. Even IF Conway could have made it happen, the County still couldn't come up with enough money to make it work unless they took it out of the County's reserves.
So what does that mean. It means there is absolutely NO WAY the County can pay the state the $14,000,000.00 they are demanding to re base the Board of Education Budget. Now the state will withhold the income tax to assure the BOE gets their money.
Wicomico County only brings in around $36,000,000.00 in income tax and since O'Malley shoved that new law into place, The Comptroller will confiscate Wicomico County's income tax.
The County Council will more than likely turn things over to the state for at least one year.
Since this new bill has come forth it will devastate the county budget for Law Enforcement, Fire Protection, Roads and Public Health, (Health Department). In order to be capable of funding MOE the County would have to force a major reduction in the Wicomico County Sheriff's Department as well as the Detention Center and the rest of the above mentioned departments.
The bottom line, the amount of taxes citizen pay will be determined by THE BOARD OF EDUCATION from this point forward. Do you believe taxing authority should rest within Wicomico County's Charter as expressed by the voters or as Norm Conway would want by turning taxing authority over to the State Board of Education?
I'll add, this is the Bill that Norm Conway sponsored, deal with it. It should be noted that this emergency Bill will NOT end this year. There will be a recurring increase for the BOE each year following.
Oh, and by the way, the Bill give the authority to override the tax cap for education funding. It's time for Norm Conway to go. He has lived off the taxpayers for years and then turns around and does this to the taxpayers. Unreal!
I will have a Part II very soon.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
46 comments:
Pollitt and his pals Conway and Cane are the cause of our discontent -- again!
Wanna bet Pollitt proposes cutting his staff -- beginning with Strausburg.
No Way -- that would mean that Rick must perform the tasks of the County Exec himself.
Then vote 'em out. You all got no one to blame but yourselves.
I believe Rick Pollitt has spent the last three years running to Anapolis complaining about the revenue cap and this is the end result of those complaints.
Look, I have personally sat in meetings with Rick whereas he had absolutely no clue as to how much money different departments were bringing in each year.
Now, how can you be a County Executive when you have absolutely no clue where the money is being spent.
I believe Rick has surrounded himself with people who can seriously assist him in his job. I believe he has no idea how to run the County, (I'm being very serious here) and instead is a professional politician.
Now, that doesn't make him a bad guy. I think almost every one of us can say we like Rick Pollitt. However, would "I" ever hire Rick Pollitt to run a business, absolutely not.
You get what you vote for. I'll add, Fredericksen is also laughing all the way to the bank with this as well.
Joe:
Although you have your opinion and I will respect that, you must realize that there a a number of citizens that are praising this bill...and I don't mean the teachers. We, as parents, demand and expect the best for our kids and their education. Without the funding, we have nothing so I applaud Norm Conway and will continue to vote for him.
Beg to differ about your view of Pollitt's staff -- they, especially Strausburg, are dangerous.
FYI -- we didn't change to an elected exec to have a high paid talent scout and chief buffoon.
Fredericksen is a piece of work. John Fredericksen needs to go back where he came from. There are employees at the central office who work in fear. Fredericksen walks around as if he is the president. When will it end?
And, let's not forget Fredericksen was hired in 2008 at a whopping salary of $165,000 plus benefits. Wonder what his salary is today?
Where is all the money that is being raised from the slots going? Is the state getting that and giving it to the county or are they keeping that? We voted for slots to help with schools but it seems that now that money is not going towards the schools. I am sick of my taxes going up to fund school then have to fork out more money to send my child to private school.
anonymous 8:40, I know for a FACT he makes more money per year than the Governor.
Thanks for letting us know what is going on in the county. Looks like a rocky road ahead for all of us here in Wicomico County. We must hide our wallets.
And does less than the governor.
8:40
If Fredericksen is like the rest of us BOE employees, he hasn't gotten a raise in the last 4 years, just like me!
Ah yes........the smell of revolution has never been as strong
Where is all the screaming about fat and waste? Does voice finally realize that they made a serious mistake in the cap and didn't put in a mechanism for growth? How can you restrict yourselves to a 2 percent increase in revenue, and grow to a county of over 100,000 residents, while the cost of doing business goes up? Joe, you are a businessman.....what if you sold widgets, and you are required by law to sell those widgets. You then find that you now have to make the same widgets for many more people and the your cost of making the widgets goes up....what do you do? Oh, btw, you cant increase the cost of the widgets by more than two percent from the previous year and you have to have 4 votes out of 7 to be allowed to increase your price. Part of the reason the state did what they did is because of the Council not allowing the cap to function as it was intended. That says that Wicomico County is not doing all that it CAN do. The cap can't only work in one direction as it has been for the last ten years, and the state won't buy that we are in poverty when the council has the ability to atleast attempt to do all it can do. I heard GA ask his question, and I heard Pollitt tell him that he had the information that he was looking for and would be happy to send it to him. Let's say the county (just to use numbers) could afford to give 50 million dollars to the schools. Carve 12 million dollars out of other revenue, such as property tax, and let the state confiscate the 38 million in income tax revenue. 7:31, I have kids in school and I want the best for them also, but I realize that there are other important functions that the county must provide. The shools can't have it all. BYW, how much of a paycut have the teachers had to take? If they had to take the equivalent paycut to the furlough days of the rest of the county employees, it would make a HUGE difference in the budget. Instead, you got them getting raises the first year of county employee furloughs. So.....is the BOE really doing all it can do? No. Look at Worcester County, they are going to give teachers a raise this year. What about the rest of the county employees?
The Council can't simply just turn things over to the State. They would have to dissolve their charter and there would be no more council. The state would laugh at them just like they did when Caroline County tried to turn their roads back over to the State after they cut the road money to the counties.
8:31 well thats one vote for conway and maybe the only one.
If this were a business it would be considered a TDR or maybe even re-organization under the Federal bankruptcy laws. If it were a European country it would be considered being in danger of default witgout a bailout. These bailouts don't come without a plan to bring the nation (or county in this case) back into financial balance. These plans almost always involve an increasingly popular term called "Austerity". Where is the austerity plan for the county? There is none!! These tax and spend Democrats and their union minions have managed to absolutely devastate this county. Now they want to tax me more and more to pay for their reckless spending. HELL NO! Joe this has to end! If the board of education and the relative educational standards remained under local control we would never have the problems we do. Rick and his entire administration has to go in the same way the Obama administration has to go. Quickly and completely. Our county is bankrupt and so is our nation. These Dems should be charged with treason.
Wicomico County is run by clowns one our main leaders Bozo THE Clown, AKA Rick Pollitt does not know what hell he is doing,he has been over his head (what little is there )from the beginning of his inept political career.
l
Governor $150,000[ Martin O'Malley
Lieutenant Governor $125,000 Anthony Brown
Attorney General $125,000 Douglas Gansler
Secretary of State $67,345 John McDonough
Treasurer of State $125,000 Nancy Kopp
The salary of Maryland's governor ranks 11th among U.S. governors' salaries. The average salary earned by U.S. governors is $128,735.
Salaries for Twelve-Month Professional Positions in Maryland Public Schools:
Superintendent*
Allegany $168,180
Anne Arundel 257,000
Baltimore City 260,000
Baltimore 307,782
Calvert 169,000
Caroline 142,100
Carroll 185,000
Cecil 165,000
Charles 249,900
Dorchester 122,475
Frederick 241,810
Garrett 157,538
Harford 200,000
Howard 265,000
Kent 142,000 -
Montgomery 216,792
Prince George's 250,000
Queen Anne's 150,800
St. Mary's 213,779
Somerset 131,000
Talbot 182,761
Washington 195,000
Wicomico 165,000
Worcester 164,300
Most Superintendents make more than the Governor
---------------------------
Wicomico is not the only county in this predicament. Can't blame Politt, Cane and Conway for the other counties with these same woes?
8:34, 31 here, I DO NOT support what Norm is doing. Just because I disagree with what VOICE has done, I realize that the county has to supply services. I am not so stupid that I can't see for myself what is happening in this county. What Norm did is idiotic, so is the revenue cap. Think of how good of shape we would be in now, even if we maintained a steady property tax rate, not increasing it one penny, if the cap didn't exist and we could have had the benefit of all the growth that we have recently witnessed, instead of having to supply services to all the new mouths with less money. Do you get it now? Probably not. Take off your blinders and think.
You can't compare the county to a business. The county's job is to provide services without profit- a break even if you would. Since the county can't provide the services, let's hear your ideas of what services to cut so that you can remain the lowest tax rate per capita in the state, and have the lowest services to match. Maybe we can look like Somerset county. The county didn't get like this because of a spending problem, the county has a revenue problem. Big difference. I know that you probably don't understand that, but look at what has been pointed out as waste. Bunch of pretty much nothing in the broad scheme of things. What the council needs to do, and what they should have done the minute that cap was put in place is to place a moratorium on growth until we can figure out a way so that growth can atleas support itself. That means no new construction. (framing and roofin' for some of you locals that don't understand what I said)
The revenue cap is the root of the problem.....just think about the money that could have been saved during the past ten years to help out today!
10:04, chances are the money would not have been "saved", although no doubt some could have been put in reserves, but fiscally we wouldn't be in as bad of shape and could have been taking care of business over the last 10 years rather than putting bandaids on everything. This recession ws just the straw that broke the camels back. Many projected that we would be at this point because of the cap......they were right. BTW, how are all you realtors doing now? Did people ask about the schools and roads when they inquired about moving here? Were you honest?
More people equals more service equals more money. Money same word as revenue. County need more. Just thought I would break it down for those who have never been off the Eastern Shore.
10:04 that is exactly what Ricky has been crying about to his buddy Norm and the other legislators who decided to do something about it. So they sold the county out and now we will be insolvent. Wonderful. Dear Norm, shame on you. We have paid your salary all of your life and have allowed you to double dip for many of those years. Now almost at the end of your career you bite the hands that fed you. Bad boy!
9:50 PM,
This is NOT about other county. This is about wicomico county. Pollitt should have paid attention to wicomico only. This really sucks. A lot of county employees will lose their jobs because of this. This is truly a sad situation for wicomico county. I hope Pollitt, his corrupt crew and the rest of these good 'ole boys fry in hell.
Where are the jobs coming from to that employ people to pay these increases? I don't know about you, but my taxes increased an additional 100 dollars a year to now pay over 1900 for a basic 3 bedroom rancher on a 1/2 acre of land! My wages have gone down. I now make half of what I used to make due to Corporate downsizing!
I have neighbors who are loosing their house and vehicles due to the economy.
Please give the tax payers in this county a break!!!! Wages are not going up but have been going down for the past five years. If this happens, I think the taxpayers of this county need to have a serious tax protest at the county office building! The county and the BOE need to justify not only their salaries but where the money is going for expenses! I'm mad as hell! I live in the county, so I get little to nothing! We even have to pay a fee just to haul trash to a landfill run by county employees who don't even police people dumping trash without a permit!!!
The revenue cap would have never even been an issue if the BOE hadn't been such hogs. Same for the government. Wasteful spending and tremendous tax increases is what moved the people to sign the petition and cast their vote making the cap a law. The BOE is the most wasteful group in the county.
Comments blaming the property tax revenue cap for Wicomico’s predicament are wildly misplaced, and have been since the cap was passed.
The cap only limited the rate of the rise in revenue derived from property taxes. All other sources of revenue the county might enjoy are untouched by the revenue cap. Admittedly, a large portion of the budget then, now and for the foreseeable future is generated by the property tax.
Anyone who thinks the county, or any other governmental entity, would have ‘saved’ money that a ‘no cap’ or ‘higher cap’ scenario might have generated has been self-medicating. The county would have spent it on a wider array of discretionary activities and we’d be carrying a higher level of debt than we do now. Kind of like the folks who traded up to bigger homes and who are now underwater; they still have a roof over their head but their fixed costs are much higher. Voters understood this spendthrift tendency when the cap was passed.
The county, under the woeful leadership of the Executive, has done little to deal with the reduction in revenue; most steps taken were baby steps and were after the fact; the looming crisis was predictable well beforehand due to reduced property values and declining other tax receipts. It was envisioned that the executive would replace the administrator; never happened. Newly appointed administrator is on the payroll, if I recall correctly, for about the same salary as the Lt. Governor; appears to have been hired at or near the top of salary range.
All county activities were ‘important enough’ to get initial and continuing funding when times were good. The issue now is what gets cut and by how much under present circumstances.
We have a local government to provide for our group safety (law enforcement and incarceration), public health, education of children and roads. Other endeavors are secondary and need to go under the microscope while we hold costs on primary services.
Joe:
Good post.
I agree that Pollitt and pals (Conway, Cane, Strausburg, Mackes, to name the core group) should be booted as soon as possible.
Freddy is worthless and should have been canned last year, but the salary for his position is not out of line -- look at the other counties for perspective.
The cap is this County's main issue. They were told years ago that it be a problem in the future but too many greedy business owners couldn't see or didn't care. Probably both. Now see the predicament you have us in? Deny and place blame rather than accept the truth but this is your fault
dittos to 12:05am. i know i have been talking to my county council representative about the "reckless spending" and late budget submissions for the past 3-4 years and rick continues to come up with more and more ways to spend us into oblivion. he just doesn't seem to understand simple accounting. things like how money is created and how to stay within your means. rick, money doesn't grow on trees.
thank you conway and cane for your reckless actions. boe you are not the only game in town. parents you need to hold the boe accountable for their reckless spending habits. money thrown into an already failing government school system won't make it better. figure it out soon for all our sakes.
i pray we look for more responsible leadership for our future. the only gripe i have with county council is stevie prettyman and her reckless vote regarding the "new school". she needs to be reminded to be true to her convictions not to the winds of the time. dumb vote stevie.
Wow. I don't think this place will ever get better. A lot of you can't even agree what the problem is, let alone forge some kind of solution.
And there is always two or three who know for a fact the problem, the solution, and how dumb everyone else is.
I don't pretend to know the answer either, just an observation on the lack of cooperation and mutual respect you have for each other.
I don't know either Pollitt or Fredericksen from a can of paint. But your descriptions, one is an idiot and the other a tyrant.
Which is dumber btw, the one elected or the ones who elected him?
Just a thought.
The cap did not limit the rate. it limited total revenue. and now since total revenue has declined, the county must raise the rate to restore revenue levels. This is allowable under the cap because the total revenue hasn't increased, but they won't do it because they don't want to raise taxes. They won't do it. this is why the state is forcing their hand.
I'm still waiting to see our hear what"reckless"spending you're talking about
Reckless spending by the BOE has been happening for years, trips to China, Florida and other states? And what "training" did they bring back and share with others? Extravagant brunches, lunches and dinners to impress others, notebooks and Ipads for staff, to name a few. Then the actions of Freddy and the board have caused lawsuits against the BOE which will mean exuberant costs for the lawyer. I could continue on but you get the picture. Wicomico county is in trouble!
Dear Can of Paint, If you don't know someone, why would you assume to characterize them based on anonymous comments on a blog? An idiot and a tyrant? Really? What does that make you, a sheep? Following along without any thought? Give me a break.
7:27 am, if you haven't seen the pattern of reckless spending in wicomico county, then i highly recommend you don't continue waiting and certainly don't hold your breath.
open your eyes. educate yourself. ask questions to people that can give you honest answers. maybe then you'll get it.
What wasteful spending? Ok. Frivolous spending within every department on small yet expensive non-essential items. Large welcome mats with logo's on them for over $1000. Ridiculous definitions of learning disabilities created by the state in order for the schools to get more federal dollars. (A child from a single parent home who is a minority and can 't behave him/herself doesn't equal a learning disability). The BOE bought into this mess and is now dependent upon this money for it's day to day operation. Now that the federal and state governments can no longer afford to fund the programs they implemented, the responsibility falls upon the backs of the local citizens. Many teachers will acknowledgs the incredible wastes of money that take place withing the BOE. County roads continues to pay 5 people to watch one man dig a hole. Supplementing local (Salisbury City) fire departments that burn diesel fuel to water plants at intersections along a state highway. Refurbishing older vehicles is much less expensive than countinually buying new ones - even with the cost of a full time mechanic to complete the work. Government at all levels is riddled with wasteful spending. The mentality that small cuts can't make a difference is also too common. I once had conversation with Council Woman Prettyman - in fact more than once - and she simply will not entertain the idea that cutting small wastes of money can amount to large cuts. Those of us who work for a living everyday know that these small cuts are what make us able to make ends meet. Those who are out of touch with the reality of our current financial situation should stand aside and let the cuts and savings begin. The state of Maryland and the federal government must stop placing these mandates upon local governments. Especially those which are unfunded. The financial failure of big federal government that now drags down local governments is a testament to the fact that smaller governments were intended to be more autonomous and are in a position to tend to its own needs. The state and federal government need to stand aside and let local government deal with local issues - especially when it relates to funding local issues.
Many cuts can be made. If the county government and the BOE actually spent only what is necessary, the cap would never have been passed.
Conway and Cain have to go. They have shoveled so much taxpayers money into their own pockets that the public needs to boot them both out of office. They have been a disaster for our economy. Respective businesses have been put on notice to either leave or be plundered.
9:31 - Your pail does not hold water. You to need to go as you are probably one of the ones on the public dole.
BOE - Teachers, all teachers are a JOKE! They only want to tear this country apart. Why do you think more people are Home schooling, to get away from teh liberal forced teaching of public schools. They are paid better than cops, have more days off and get better benefits than 90% of the workers. All they do is cry and say "Its not fair" I am so sick of BOE, Teachers and yes Norm Conway, a lifetime political JOKE!
He has done nothing but ate well for his service.
I think there needs to be more explanation of the money being spent by the BOE for lawyer fees due to Freddys bad choices? Is there truth to this expense?
My kids were in the school system here and some teachers were a "joke". However, we had the pleasure of experiencing wonderful teachers, Mrs. Snapp, Mrs. Linda Truitt, Mrs. Debbie Krause, Mrs. Knarr, Mrs. Ruby Brown and Mrs. Lori Smith. Teachers are like any other, there are good and bad.Pat the good ones on the back.
I have two kids in the schools here and they are lucky to have really good teachers. The teachers in the infants and toddlers program are amazing. My only problem with the school system is the superintendent , the special education directors and the infants and toddlers boss. Clean up those areas and you may see systemic changes. Until then, we will see an increase in problems.
8:20, many of your comments are typical stereotypes that need to be shed. Maybe it has to do with your misunderstanding and ignorance, rather than waste. If you see what you think is waste, why not pick up the phone, and ask a question. Maybe you will find that you just need to be educated.
Post a Comment