Permit me to gloat (sadly) for a moment. As those of you who are regular readers of these editorials know, I have for over four years warned the Patrick County Board of Supervisors about the unacceptable financial performance of the County. In addition I attended many Supervisor meetings to point out that the County could not sustain itself financially if the trend in operating losses (now six consecutive years) continued.
For my efforts I was taunted, threatened, derided, insulted and defamed! But here we are today…Flat Broke just as I predicted! The Supervisors want to give the impression that they were mere spectators to this financial train wreck. But that is not the case; the BOS were driving the train for the whole journey, pouring on the coal to the spending train until it flew off the tracks! Now they expect to continue their prolifgate spending!
Faced with financial debacle what has the board done? They propose to raise property taxes a draconian 19 percent. They also made some” really tough” decisions to cut expenses less than 1 percent. Even with the 19 percent increase in taxes the projected budget deficit is in excess of $1,500,000. To eliminate the projected 2020 deficit the Board of Supervisors would raise property taxes an additional 15 percent making the total tax increase 35 percent. A new rate of 77 cents, up 20 cents over the present rate. But even that incredible increase would not refund the contingency fund nor anticipate increases in expenses for 2021. Does the Board of Supervisors of Patrick County really believe that the taxpayers are able to ante up another $3,000,000 in taxes so that the Board of Supervisors can continue to spend just as they have in the past?
It is time for “real” tough decisions to be made. Rather than raise taxes the BOS needs to drastically cut expenses and if possible refinance the County’s debt. It is projected that refinancing the debt refinancing would reduce the deficit for 2020 by $400,000 leaving a need to cut expenses by $1,000,000.
Yes the budget can be cut by $1,000,000. Let me provide some suggestions some of which may sound like heresy but remember I have been right before.
Reduce all payments to Patrick County Board of Supervisors. Total $50,000.
Eliminate any position that includes the word “assistant”. Eliminating the assistant County Manager and the Administrative Assistant for Parks and Recreation alone would save $80,000. There are other assistants. Eliminating all of them is probably another $120,000. Total $200,000.
Next eliminate all travel/education expenses. My quick review of the 2020 budget shows most departments enjoy a travel budget of $4,000. Why should we pay for the County employees to stay in nice places while we suffer and catastrophic tax increases. Total $50,000.
Eliminate the Marketing office. Let’s face it our Board of Supervisors provides all the marketing the County needs. Total $425,000.
Close the jail! The cost of the jail operations is $2,300,000 when you include debt service. By comparison Floyd County spends $475,000 to house their prisoners in a regional prison. The number one expenditure in Patrick County is the Sheriff’s Office. The savings would not occur in year one but listen to me….it is close the jail or close the schools or watch taxes continue to go up and up…you can decide. Total $200,000 in year one.
Eliminate all the subsidies to Constitutional Officers. For example, the Commonwealth reimburses the County for the operation of the Commissioner of Revenue’s office in the amount of $150,937 yet the County budgets $304,218. Similar numbers for the Treasurer’s office are $115,024 versus $362,000. There are four more Constitutional Officer offices to go. Maybe we cannot save it all but $250,000 is a reasonable estimate. Total $250,000.
You get the idea. I have listed $1,175,000 in cost reductions and that is probably just a good start. Add to that the reduction by refinancing the debt, we are at $1,575,000. That is the equivalent of 10 cents in potential tax increase. It would be a good start to putting Patrick County back on sound financial footing and partially relieve the taxpayers of further tax increases.
There are many more challenges ahead for Patrick County, especially as long as the current Board of Supervisors remains in place. All those up for re-election in 2019 must be defeated at the polls. Boyce and Weiss need to be removed by the ballot this fall. Fulcher has already declared he is not running. Let’s start the New Year with a breath of fresh air. Or we can continue to breathe the staleness as we have for the last 10 years.
Bill Moore
Woolwine
