The Demise of the Fiscal Conservative

We complain about Congress wasting our tax dollars. We complain about our state legislature wasting our tax dollars. What happens when it comes to our local tax dollars?

If you reside in Wicomico County, Maryland it appears that you simply take the word of our elected officials and assume that they are spending our tax dollars wisely. I will be the first to admit that I have spent very little time reading the proposed Wicomico County budget. Therefore I would be remiss in criticizing it.

Who cares anyway? Our tax rate is going down thanks to the revenue cap and since the County Council has done nothing in the past to control growth a bunch of residential development will assure that our county real property rate will continue to decline for the foreseeable future.

If you live in the town of Fruitland your tax rate is not going up so most folks aren’t complaining. In all honesty, I don’t have a clue about the rates in Hebron, Delmar, Willards, Pittsville, Sharptown, etc. Of course we all know that Salisbury Mayor Barrie Tilghman and her little cabal of Louise Smith, Gary Comegys and Shanie Shields are setting up the taxpayers in Barrieland for a huge tax increase.

Unless they are increasing taxes, as in Salisbury, most folks are simply asking, “What’s the problem?”. The problem is complicated, but will haunt us for years to come.

Despite living in a county where people pride themselves on the (false) claim of being conservative (despite a slight Democrat registration advantage), fiscal conservativism has all but disappeared. Let’s start with the county budget. While I have admitted that I am not as well versed on the county budget as I should be I refuse to accept the notion that there is no fat to be trimmed from this budget.

Two of the most politically conservative people I know in Wicomico County have both told me that there’s simply nothing to be cut from this budget. I can point out that money spent on a “Public Information Officer” for our County Executive could be better spent elsewhere. I also maintain that hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions) could be trimmed from the Board of Education’s budget. Rather than fueling a bureaucracy, that money could be better spent in the classrooms, on teachers, on school construction, renovation … or (here’s a novel concept) returning it to the taxpayer.

Moving to Salisbury, there’s enough pork to keep me in bacon for a lifetime. Salisbury provides take home vehicles, not just for police, not just for fire personnel, but for public works employees, Neighborhood Services personnel, Building and Zoning employees. I’m dying to hear the rationale for this colossal waste of the taxpayer’s hard earned cash. The police chief is too cheap to pay for his own newspaper. No problem, the taxpayer will provide. The city attorney overspent on his vacation to Antarctica. The taxpayers can pony up more money. The list goes on, and on, and on.

This, however, is not the most pressing problem. The most pressing problem is taxpayer apathy. Sure, people are upset about a huge tax increase in Salisbury. One friend actually argues that if they cut the increase to $0.06 (which will be a tad under 10%) then people won’t get too upset.

I find this terribly frustrating. IF Salisbury really needs a tax increase so be it. Unfortunately Salisbury has a Mayor and Council that has such a history of fiscal incompetence that ANY tax increase has to be assumed to be more wasteful spending. The solution to such a problem is for citizens to READ the budget and DEMAND answers from their elected officials. Of course you can’t get people in Salisbury to vote. They certainly aren’t going to read a budget. Shoot, the majority of the city council voted to enable the tax increase without even reading the budget (by their own admission).

Is there a solution? Yes! Force our county and city governments to adopt zero-base budgeting. This simply means that each department starts with a budget of zero and is forced to justify each expenditure. Does the Public Works department really need X number of people to fix streets? Does the Finance Office really need Y number of people to accomplish their tasks. Under the current system departments start with their current budget as a baseline and then add to it.

In addition to adopting zero-based budgeting the budget process for counties and towns should be moved back by at least thirty days. This will give the members of the legislative bodies more time to review the budget and ask relevant questions. Of course this assumes that members of council even bother reading the budget. We know that this isn’t necessarily the case in Salisbury.

Most importantly, taxpayers need to realize that each dollar spent by the federal, state, and local governments is one dollar taken from their collective pockets. Does government have a purpose? Of course! Is some level of government spending necessary? Absolutely! However, by starting with the revenue side of the equation to determine what level of taxation is politically palatable does not yield a level of government spending that is necessary. This approach merely affords politicians the ability to continue picking the collective pocket of the taxpayer without yielding an appropriate amount of benefit.

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