One Citizens View of the BoS Tax Increase Strategy

Dear York County BoS,

My name is David Ware, I live off Lakeside Drive. I  have been following your budget deliberations in the Virginia Gazette and see you want to raise the tax rates rather than reduce expenditures like we will have to do in order to pay the additional money you will extort from us.

For me, it is so disappointing to see government at all levels play the budget game:
 
1.   An unelected, high paid bureaucrat proposes a tax increase.
 
2.  The governing body balks at such a drastic increase and demands the unelected high paid bureaucrat cut expenses.
 
3.  Cuts, as always, are made at the expense of teachers, fire, police, trash pick up, sewer maintenance, the areas that actually do have some positive impact, never cuts are made to administration, legal, codes, the people that make sure yard sale signs are not on highway rights-of-way, the people who respond to anonymous snitching by acrimonious neighbors about too many cars in the driveways and other violations that cause us so much pain.
 
4.  The special interests related to said "cuts" promote their cause with pronouncements that the sky will fall in, houses will burn to the ground, children will be uneducated and so on.
 
5. After hours of "hard work," "tough decisions" are made and a compromise is reached.
 
6. A public hearing is held where the special interests come to compliment the BOS on their "hard work" and congratulate them on being so "reasonable."  Some may show up and fuss about the spending, others are unable to attend.
 
7. Depending on the public hearing, the unelected bureaucrat may be directed to cut a little more off the budget.
 
Your process is now at points six and seven.  After some forty years of watching this game being played, I have  some observations:
 
1.  The people charged with cutting budgets are the ones that need to be cut.
 
2.  The elected rulers, such as yourselves, never have any suggestions as to how we, the taxpayers, are supposed to come up with the extra money you are about to take from us, by force.
 
3.  It is more rare than a four leaf clover to find an elected representative willing to provide any kind of leadership in restraining the growth of government.
 
Many years ago when I was in school, the definition of socialism was when everyone has their snout in the public trough. I hope that at least some of you would do something to halt the Juggernaut.
 
David Ware

Forwarded with permission from David Ware.
York County Citizens Forum