The Patrick County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet March 30 to discuss another “pay CUT” for the taxpayers in the county.
Last year while the landowners’ assets decreased in value due to the economic downturn, the supervisors voted a 15.95% increase in real estate taxes. In effect that was a “pay cut” in addition to a loss of land value for the taxpayers.
This year there is proposal on the table to cut the taxpayers’ pay again! If the proposed increase is enacted it will mean in the last two years the board of supervisors will have raised real estate taxes an average of 10.6% per year. That is a big “pay cut” for taxpayers.
What do we the taxpayers receive in return for taking this pay cut? Not so much as far as I can tell. Instead the taxpayers’ pay cut is to be used to further enrich some of the highest paid people in Patrick County. Under the proposed budget we the taxpayers are going to take another “pay cut” so that the county employees can receive a pay increase.
Of the approximate $539,000 proposed increase in real estate taxes $390,000 is budgeted to fund a pay increase for all county employees, including some of the mostly highly compensated people in the whole county—all of whom hold tax supported positions, who by the way have paid vacation, paid sick time, health insurance and retirement fully or partially funded by the taxpayers.
Those of us on Social Security know that there was no inflation increase in our monthly checks for 2016. No 3% pay raise! Also, for a lot of folks Medicare costs went up. Yet the board of supervisors of Patrick County believes we taxpayers should take another “pay cut?”
I am not sure what is happening in other parts of the county, but here in Woolwine people are being put on short time. Having your employer effectively cut your pay and the county board of supervisors too, makes raising a family difficult.
Call your supervisor and tell them we taxpayers cannot afford another “pay cut.”
Bill Moore
Woolwine
