.png)
District 3
Age: 52 Occupation: County commissioner, business owner, entrepreneur Question: As various forms of federal aid expire and costs rise, the county is facing a struggle to balance the budget. Should the county consider some form of tax increase to have enough revenue? Increase fees for county services? How would you prioritize cuts to county services if there isn’t enough revenue to continue services at current levels?
Answer: Should the county consider some form of tax increase to gain enough revenue? Well, the answer to that question is relatively straightforward if there is a budget shortfall besides endeavoring to increase efficiency which is something we do constantly we can reduce services or we can increase taxes.
Ultimately the decision between raising taxes and or reducing services is in the hands of constituents. For me a big part of being a commissioner is providing accurate information on the level of service we can offer with the revenue choices we have and let the people decide the issue. In my mind the core services of county roads and law enforcement have already been suffering from a reduction from historical levels of service even as the demand and complexity has grown. My personal feeling is there is little appetite for any property tax increase as people are frustrated with cost of just owning property in the county and the loss of much of our industry has shifted the tax burden to residents.
We as commissioners can increase the fees we charge for certain services when we can tie those fees to that specific service but to me the application of that source of revenue is limited to those services that have a narrow area of service and are outside of our core priorities of public health and safety.
As far as prioritizing possible cuts to services, one of the things voters need to know is how little flexibility commissioners have in most of their spending decisions, so many of the areas of our budget and revenues simply can’t be diverted to other priorities because the source of those revenues are specifically siloed to that service and often we are mandated by state law to provide that service.
Unfortunately with the level of regulation and bureaucracy in our state the cost and complexity of providing services to our community only goes one way, UP!
Question: Like many employers, the county is having a difficult time attracting and retaining staff. What can be done to make sure the county has enough workers to do county business? Pay more? Allow work from home? Something else?
Answer: I think every employer is having some difficulty attracting and retaining employees in today’s climate of high inflation. In my view it’s best to have a comprehensive strategy that includes offering a good work / life balance and that can include remote work for some positions but I think we need to be very careful with that and make sure the county is getting the best return we can.
Some pay increases are appropriate and inevitable in today’s market and we must be somewhat competitive on wages with both public sector and private sector employers in our area if we’re going to retain good staff. My own view is that building a climate and culture where employees are challenged, valued and given opportunities to grow and develop throughout their career goes a long way towards recruiting and retaining good employees.
Question: After funding law enforcement, some would say maintaining county roads is the next top priority for county funding. Do you agree that is the case and if so, is road maintenance adequately funded now? Or is road funding one of many things the county has to fund with the money it has? If there aren’t enough funds for maintaining roads, what should be done?
Answer: I do agree that after law enforcement county roads are the next priority and there is no doubt in my mind that county road maintenance is underfunded, besides our people our road system is the most valuable asset we have and it is slowly deteriorating at the present maintenance levels. Put simply we do the best we can with the revenues we have available.
Under the present leadership in public works I think the citizens are getting a good return on the dollars spent but make no mistake the lack of spending is going to cost us in the long term.
As a county and even a state we need to have a bigger conversation about how we fund roads especially maintenance of roads. Before any “new” taxs or fees are introduced people need to have confidence that their dollars are being spent wisely and for the purposes intended. For myself I don’t have that confidence when it comes to the spending and allocation of our state transportation dollars.
