The Watauga County Budget

The Watauga County Commission held a public hearing last night on the proposed budget for fiscal year '05-'06, and only two people spoke against the 5-cent tax increase to fund a new high school ... Madelyn (Karen) Carter and former county commissioner Allen Trivette. (The only other speakers were begging the commissioners to spend more money, particularly on their non-profits, departments, or burning causes.)

Carter alluded to her belief in a massive conspiracy that is trying to deprive her of her land, a plot that apparently commenced the moment the first colonial governor proposed taxing property. Make that sacred property. In a fore-taste of next year's local political campaign, Carter actually used the term "taxing and spending," and referred to the 5-cent increase in the rate as "oppressive."

Trivette was infinitely more charming: "It's a lazy, wasteful County Commissioner who raises taxes." Having attended two days of the commissioners' budget "workshops" in March, for a total of 11 hours, and two days of budget "negotiations" this month, for a total of another 8 hours ... and having seen the vast pile of budget papers these commissioners had to wade through for untold hours not tallied up in public meetings ... I think we can safely lay aside Trivette's charge of laziness. These guys work for practically nothing and are expected to show up for many, many meetings of other boards, commissions, and civic and church groups. Lazy? We believe it's a lazy ex-commissioner that relies on such cheap shots.

And "wasteful"? Not hardly, no how. The Sheriff didn't get all he was asking for. The school system, even, didn't get all it was asking for. Many departments are looking at cuts. It's a lean budget.

Trivette's "lazy & wasteful" charge doesn't fly. A couple of other reasons for why Commissioners might be forced to raise taxes: "a belief in the future," as Commission Chair Jim Deal terms it, i.e., the importance of education, and the fact that the previous Board of Commissioners, with Allen Trivette sitting on it, was neglectful and at times outright hostile to education. That previous group of commissioners was bent on an ideological course that said ... cut taxes no matter what, damn the consequences. Don't think of the future. Think only of your braggin' rights: "We cut taxes." Meanwhile, both the schools and the sheriff's department suffered.

Another "driver" of a local tax increase can be traced to another group of ideologues in Washington, who are busily shoving "no child left behind" mandates down the food-chain to the local level, with no funding to pay for them, and shoving increasing responsibility for social safety-net mandates onto local governments, because they too must give tax cuts to their richest friends. Where is national Republicanism taking us? ... to greater tax burdens on us local folks for the sake of letting Bush's corporate cronies off the hook. This is NOT a tax-cutting regime. It's a tax-transference regime, and it's all landing on us at the bottom.