No new taxes is a great goal. With increasing health, energy and other costs, how can state or federal governments provide for existing
essential services without new or increasing taxes?
As individuals we face the same challenges, so how can we pay any more for taxes?
Through efficient and effective management, ongoing review of processes or planning and continuous adjustments -- just like individual households and businesses strive to do to conserve limited resources? Yes, but state and federal governments have another strategy for being able to claim "no tax increases" as well.
By shifting responsibility to county, city or town goverments. Viola! Trickle down economics for the new century!
What is actually happening is that individual taxpayers are experiencing higher tax rates with diminishing returns on the level or types of
essential services being provided, regardless of funding source. This, while personal incomes are generally stagnate and household expenses are skyrocketing, too. County government also wants to give employees a modest cost of living or performance raise, and sees increasing retirement, health and energy costs.
Montgomery County Board of Supervisors (BoS) will oversee a
2008 proposed budget of $142.7, of which
53.2% is designated -- coming from federal or state sources to fund only specified
essential services.
Of the total county budget, $90 Million is for public K-12 education (the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg do not provide any financial support from their budgets). This is why, when the state's General Assembly starts to shift lottery proceeds or lowering Standards of Learning (SOL), it has an immediate impact on local pocketbooks -- even though taxes "didn't increase" at the state level.
This community has gone beyond the state's SOL for some time -- ensuring that K-12 pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) is realistic for meeting individual student needs. This means more teachers are in our local classrooms than what the state minimums require, and these additional positions are fully paid for at the local level.
How effective would schools be with with many more students in every classroom -- remembering in today's world the curriculum is expanded to cover basic subjects plus drug and technology education for regular and special needs children -- (including behavioral, medical, gifted, or learning styles)? How many employees are required just to address the bureaucratic demands of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) or SOLs?
In order to balance the state budget without cutting other services or increasing taxes, SOL standards are being lowered. This simply means the state's funding portion is being further reduced -- number of teachers in a classroom, retirement contributions, guidance counselors, maintenance or construction -- while also suggesting a shift of lottery proceeds away from public education.
After education, the BoS has about $52.7 Million left to provide the following services:
- Administration (Supervisors, Treasurer, Commissioner of Revenue, Electoral Board, Planning, Zoning, Reassessments, etc.)
- Law Enforcement & Court Services
- Fire & Rescue Services in County
- Human/Health & Social Services
- Libraries
- Parks & Recreation Services
- Economic Development
- Public road maintenance
- Water Authority
- Debt service
- Comprehensive Services Act
Of the county's $142.7 Million budget, 46.8% must be generated from local revenues derived from real estate, personal property, 1% of the state sales taxes, with another 8.2% coming from a few other allowed local sources.
Consider, too, that county resident's water and sewer services are subsidized, as cost of providing these services exceeds revenues from users. Safety standards create the need for upgrades, just as an aging system also needs constant attention to this infrastructure. Ditto with providing development related services -- staff costs for reviews exceed revenues from user fees.
Add on top of this a recent editorial pointing out that county fire and rescue service is provided in large part by the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg, and those costs exceed what the county contributes. This appears to be a subsidy by town residents for county services (or it may even be interpreted by some as tit-for-tat, since the towns don't contribute to public education).
Having 1% of the state sales tax come back to the county means that when individuals do spend money, they need to make these purchases within Montgomery County or the 1% goes to another locality.
And the Comprehensive Services Act is an entire can of worms unto itself.
These issues are not unique to Montgomery County, nor to resident's of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Nor are they unique to government, as individuals are looking at how to meet "essential needs" such as higher energy and increasing health costs with flat income projections.
The supervisor's must play the hand our General Assembly deals them -- and that of the general economy -- becoming ever more creative in spreading a little less over a lot more. Wish them well, as their decisions will be felt by all households and businesses within their borders.