I live in Queen Anne's County, which is facing a $17 million budget deficit. The proposed solution by the the county's Citizens Budget Committee is to reduce spending by $5.8 million and RAISE taxes. The committees is recommending a increase in the real property tax rate t0 $0.87 per $100 of assessment from $0.77, and an increase in the county's piggy back tax from 2.8% to 3.2%. This would put QAC's income tax rate on par with PG, Montgomery, and Howard--the most expensive counties in the state in which to live.
Forget for a moment that the committee did not provide the public with an itemized budget to review only an opaque summary, there are more cuts that can be made especially in the education budget, and that there are non-tax revenue options the county is not pursuing--the committee authors published a condescending executive summary, in which they saw fit to preemptively insult opponents of their proposed tax increases. Page seven from the committee's executive summary:
Citizens' Budget Committee Recommendations-FY2011 7
More on the alternatives to the recommendations later, but the committee authors did themselves no favors by insulting tax increase opponents, who possess ideas to solve the budget problem without doing on the backs of county taxpayers.
Comments
Excellent article Mark! I have always said, "you get more bees with honey than with vinegar". The County insulting the very people who pay their salaries is not going to get them re-elected in the upcoming elections let alone get people to think raising taxes is a good idea.
Insulting the stone from which they want to extract the blood
Mark- you did a super job on this article! Knowledge and information are what keep people from making decisions based on emotion. You gave many people a thump in the head on the gross reality of what is happening to the citizens of QA County! It disgusts me to no end that if is acceptable for the leadership of QA County, along with other counties, to ALLOW such a deficit to exist. Normal households do not conduct themselves that way and we do not tolerate irresponsibility in our own homes. Why would we tolerate this from our leaders? Everyone in QA County leadership should be held accountable and responsible. The culture of said county leaders has cast the die...and this means that Wargotz knows only one culture and that is to overspend and hence over tax. Keep up the good work and thank you for infusing integrity into journalism!!!!!
At least get the facts straight:
Obviously, You didn't attend the hearings or read the local papers.
www.kibaytimes.com/articles/2010/05/26/news/124802.txt
Looks like 3 commissioners are opposed. Wargotz was first to oppose property tax and income tax increases (from the start of this), now the others.
In fact, if you watch the online QAC-TV via internet or local cable, you would know that Wargotz (and Ransom) voted to oppose using the citizens budget recommendation of tax increases as the basis of the letter to we QAC taxpayers.
Wargotz and Ransom have been good on this from the start. We'll have to see if the others indeed are "tone deaf" - I would doubt we in QAC will see a tax increase. Not given the leadership of Wargotz & Ransom. I believe Gunther is the third vote to kill any possible property or income tax increase. Wargotz keeps harping on cutting government, I agree, and looks like they will do just that. Bravo Wargotz and those who vote with him!
Lynne & Scott
Which facts did I not get straight? I attended the Tuesday hearing. I was there for an hour before family responsibilities called me home. I accurately reflected what was in the budget committee's recommendations.
Not you silly, the post-er prior to ours.
Lynne & Scott
Which facts did I not get straight? I attended the Tuesday hearing. I was there for an hour before family responsibilities called me home. I accurately reflected what was in the budget committee's recommendations.
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