The Patrick County Board of Supervisors voted to increase the real estate tax rate for the second year in a row. There was no mention of what benefit the taxpayers would receive from this increased tax burden.
The only beneficiaries I could determine were the school employees (a raise of 2%), the county employees (a raise of 3%) and the board of supervisors gave themselves a whopping raise of 10%.
Based on the “land book value” of Patrick County, the approved real estate rate increase of 2.5 cents for the next budget year amounts to total tax increase of $390,000.
How many times can you spend $390,000 in one year? The approved increased contribution from the county to the schools for next budget year is $500,000. The approved increase in pay for the county employees is $230,000. If Mr. Weiss has his way $234,000 will be spent on paid EMTs. None of these spending increases take into account inflationary cost of operation for the county that could run as much as $150,000.
The spending increases currently committed for school and county employee raises adds up to $730,000. Throw in $234,000 for paid EMTs and $150,000 for inflation it all adds up to $1,114 million! By simple math it appears the County Board of Supervisors plans on spending the tax increase almost three times!
For that sort of “creative” financing perhaps the Patrick County Board of Supervisors deserve the 10% pay raise they just voted for themselves.
Bill Moore
Woolwine
