Budget Banter

By Hannah W. Wever

Published: April 10, 2008

There was a crowd at the Gordon Building for Tuesday’s public hearings portions of the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting, but only a handful of community members chose to speak before the board.
Based on the comments of those folks who did speak, there are common sentiments among citizens concerning the county’s proposed 2008-2009 budget, the proposed 2008 tax levy and proposed capital improvements plan for 2008-2009 through 2012-2013. Residents spoke against the county’s plans for a new middle school in the eastern end. They rallied for the county’s continued support of daycare programs, and they lamented a proposed tax rate increase amid a faltering economy and inflated property assessments.
Joan Bergstrom said a decision by the board to build a new elementary school, and not the planned middle school, would be a wiser decision. The greatest need for classroom space is at the elementary school level, she said. Building a larger, more expensive middle school is irresponsible, she added, and will result in a greater financial burden for constituents.
Jack Snyder began amicably by thanking supervisors for their efforts to keep the budget down, but he was quick to follow up with some criticism about the middle school construction project.
“What we really need is a new elementary school and an expansion to the middle schools. I don’t think you got good data on what the student body will be in the future,” Snyder said. “It’s going to be an unpleasant situation in a couple of years,” he warned. 
Former Orange County Supervisor Rod Slayton questioned the board’s decision to reduce county-subsidized daycare services.
“We pay taxes to live in a civilized society, so I have no problem with the tax rate,” Slayton said. “You need to provide those goods and services that people can’t provide for themselves.” And within that category are daycare and recreation services, Slayton continued. The county’s decision to reduce the county’s childcare providing resources, he said, will have a serious effect on the people who rely on it.
Slayton suggested there may be savings found in county payroll. The economy has slowed, yet the number of county employees is ever-growing. And those employees’ salaries are larger than ever before, he said.
“It seems like the county has become a bureaucratic nightmare,” Slayton said. There are too many chiefs and not enough Indians, he added.
Snyder said the number of county staff had grown too large, also.
“It’s double the cost of what we had in 2004. It needs to be pared,” he said.
Bonnie Fincham told the board how the most recent reassessment had caused her property value soar, forcing her household to struggle to pay the real estate tax bill amid an economic recession and a series of job layoffs.
The proposed tax rate was set at $0.47 per $100 of assessed valuation. That’s still an increase of $.05 over last year’s budget, but it’s down from the $.09 tax increase initially proposed in the 2009 budget.
“Our land value was $37,200 before that outrageous reassessment. Now it’s $210,000!” Fincham said.
She asked supervisors to remember, when considering the proposed $.05 tax rate increase, that property values have dropped off precipitously. Meanwhile, she added, folks are making the same salaries—or worse, like her husband, showing up at work to find the company has closed.
“Keep in mind the community is suffering here,” she said to the board. “Bear that in mind as you’re planning the tax rate and the budget and the projects we’re taking on,” she requested.
John Bangs had done his arithmetic about the projects the county is taking on, and he came before the board with some frightening figures about the county’s future debt service.
“If you go through with all this, the taxpayers in the county are not going to be very happy,” Bangs speculated. “I really wish you would think about the years it’s going to take to pay off the $200 million that will be generated between now and 2013,” he said.
The board of supervisors will vote April 15 on the proposed 2008-2009 budget, the proposed 2008 tax levy and proposed capital improvements plan for 2008-2009 through 2012-2013.