Most County Commissioners support a proposed budget funded by the first property tax increase in recent years and a bigger increase in the county's fire assessment.
Decent rundown of how the County is trying to deal with their budget this year. It's a fascinating time in County Government.
Here's how I see it:
Three commissioners, who were just elected in November on a platform that I'll summarize as 'the schools and courthouse are crumbling but it ain't our fault, all government is bad, please elect me to the government, I will troll people who weren't born here and I'll never raise taxes' are, as of now, all in full-throated support of the largest county tax increase since 2019 - the year the voters forced them to raise our taxes to fix our schools (which still aren't fixed).
Besides that, all three recently-elected commissioners are also in support of switching from many distinct, community-based fire tax districts (which previously guaranteed money for individual fire departments) to a single, county-wide tax district. This single, county-wide fire tax district is not inherently a bad policy - but the county manager has not offered any sort of parallel governance improvements to determine how fire tax dollars will be distributed in the future. Essentially, county leadership gains all control over fire department budgets. Fire Chiefs around the county are understandably nervous - they've seen how the county has treated other groups that they interact with: the schools, the courts, the city, etc. In most of these cases, government WAS bad - the county government. They delay, bully and intimidate rather than work together to solve problems and help people. You can understand why fire departments might not be too excited to hand over more control to the county.
County commissioners (the people's representatives) have, so far, not inquired as to how additional oversight of these budgets could benefit the public. Fire protection and our fire departments, who largely run on volunteer labor, are deeply connected to the communities they protect. Cedar Mountain, Balsam Grove, Connestee, etc. - these aren't just fire departments, they feed the identities of our individual communities.
If the county manager really wants to move forward with the single fire tax district - open up the budgeting process. Create a citizen-led fire department finance committee. Give seats on this committee (with a vote) to citizens from each of our fire tax districts. Have their meetings in public. Create the fire department budgets in plain view of the citizens. Want more control? Fine - but add more oversight. That's the right way to do it.
People who identify as conservative in the sense of "not liberal, and definitely not one of them socialists" appear to be very tribal. This makes Larry Chapman's facetious statement (as reported in the article) that he'd have to check the definition of socialism interesting.
Self-identifying conservatives tend to have an "in group" (of which they're a part of) and an "out group" (everyone else). The comments from the other commissioners regarding their dedication to conservative-ism reads like people who are trying to stay within the "in group", almost like declaring one's self as conservative creates a safe space where actual job performance is secondary to the declared faith in convervative-ism (of which, as far as I can tell, is largely informed by New York City-based media outlets like FoxNews).
Larry Chapman's comment is interesting as it shows infighting within the "in group" - a self-professed conservative is mocking another conservative. Chapman is mocking another because (apparently) the other doesn't know what socialism means. If any self-identifying conservative took time to lookup the definition, they'd see that County Commissioners are in fact "going down to socialism". But apparently they can't, because demonstrating actual competence in this matter would cause the commissioners to find themselves part of the "out group". So we all get to watch the bizarre spectacle.
(Ben Franklin had something to say about the wisdom of fire departments, which every self-identifying conservative should know about. Or reject Ben Franklin.)
I'd personally prefer the County Commissioners to be over-performing in their jobs and supporting the county in creative ways. Instead, the Commissioners are pointing at the State and saying "the only reason why we're doing anything at all is because the State says we have to". This is the definition of doing the bare minimum, and it undermines the entire concept of local self-governance. I wish the County Commissioners would self-identify as elected County Commissioners first, and leave all of the virtue signaling at the door.
Excellent reporting, not available anywhere else.
Please keep up your invaluable work.
Decent rundown of how the County is trying to deal with their budget this year. It's a fascinating time in County Government.
Here's how I see it:
Three commissioners, who were just elected in November on a platform that I'll summarize as 'the schools and courthouse are crumbling but it ain't our fault, all government is bad, please elect me to the government, I will troll people who weren't born here and I'll never raise taxes' are, as of now, all in full-throated support of the largest county tax increase since 2019 - the year the voters forced them to raise our taxes to fix our schools (which still aren't fixed).
Besides that, all three recently-elected commissioners are also in support of switching from many distinct, community-based fire tax districts (which previously guaranteed money for individual fire departments) to a single, county-wide tax district. This single, county-wide fire tax district is not inherently a bad policy - but the county manager has not offered any sort of parallel governance improvements to determine how fire tax dollars will be distributed in the future. Essentially, county leadership gains all control over fire department budgets. Fire Chiefs around the county are understandably nervous - they've seen how the county has treated other groups that they interact with: the schools, the courts, the city, etc. In most of these cases, government WAS bad - the county government. They delay, bully and intimidate rather than work together to solve problems and help people. You can understand why fire departments might not be too excited to hand over more control to the county.
County commissioners (the people's representatives) have, so far, not inquired as to how additional oversight of these budgets could benefit the public. Fire protection and our fire departments, who largely run on volunteer labor, are deeply connected to the communities they protect. Cedar Mountain, Balsam Grove, Connestee, etc. - these aren't just fire departments, they feed the identities of our individual communities.
If the county manager really wants to move forward with the single fire tax district - open up the budgeting process. Create a citizen-led fire department finance committee. Give seats on this committee (with a vote) to citizens from each of our fire tax districts. Have their meetings in public. Create the fire department budgets in plain view of the citizens. Want more control? Fine - but add more oversight. That's the right way to do it.
I got an idea. Let's give feudalism a try. Maybe that'll satisfy everyone's "conservative" impulses. Praise the Lord whoever he may be.
People who identify as conservative in the sense of "not liberal, and definitely not one of them socialists" appear to be very tribal. This makes Larry Chapman's facetious statement (as reported in the article) that he'd have to check the definition of socialism interesting.
Self-identifying conservatives tend to have an "in group" (of which they're a part of) and an "out group" (everyone else). The comments from the other commissioners regarding their dedication to conservative-ism reads like people who are trying to stay within the "in group", almost like declaring one's self as conservative creates a safe space where actual job performance is secondary to the declared faith in convervative-ism (of which, as far as I can tell, is largely informed by New York City-based media outlets like FoxNews).
Larry Chapman's comment is interesting as it shows infighting within the "in group" - a self-professed conservative is mocking another conservative. Chapman is mocking another because (apparently) the other doesn't know what socialism means. If any self-identifying conservative took time to lookup the definition, they'd see that County Commissioners are in fact "going down to socialism". But apparently they can't, because demonstrating actual competence in this matter would cause the commissioners to find themselves part of the "out group". So we all get to watch the bizarre spectacle.
(Ben Franklin had something to say about the wisdom of fire departments, which every self-identifying conservative should know about. Or reject Ben Franklin.)
I'd personally prefer the County Commissioners to be over-performing in their jobs and supporting the county in creative ways. Instead, the Commissioners are pointing at the State and saying "the only reason why we're doing anything at all is because the State says we have to". This is the definition of doing the bare minimum, and it undermines the entire concept of local self-governance. I wish the County Commissioners would self-identify as elected County Commissioners first, and leave all of the virtue signaling at the door.