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Editorial:

Raley’s Budget

St. Mary’s Commissioner Dan Raley has promised he won’t raise taxes and won’t lay off county employees but, sadly he is already going back on his first promise, not to raise taxes and because of his swing vote on this year’s budget for St. Mary’s County, he is making a choice which will result in the loss of as many as 50 jobs this time next year.
Commissioner Larry Jarboe has proposed that a restructuring of county government be accomplished with the result of consolidating services to reduce duplication.
Part of Parks and Recreation, which deals in design, construction and caring for facilities belongs in the Public Works Department as maintenance and transportation would best be performed by a department which has proven skills in this area, has in-house engineers and others who can better do this work.
Programs which provide recreation are Human Services and can be aligned under the Human Services agency, resulting in the elimination of contract positions of directors and deputy directors in this consolidation.
While most bureaucrats would have job cuts start at the bottom, Jarboe is right in calling for the number of $100,000 plus contract positions be lopped off and county agencies to be consolidated to save money.
Raley’s promises were broken before he got them out of his mouth.
While Dan Raley was wagging his tongue about not raising taxes, he was going along with a budget packed with a $14.5 million hike in property taxes. Raley thinks you are too dumb to know he can maintain the constant yield and thus lower the county tax rate to make up for the obscene rise in the state assessment rate. He thinks you are dumb enough to believe the bull about the 5 % cap being the saving grace, when you know that the 5% raise you will give to the government is more than any raise you will get.
But Raley is really banking on is money rolling in from somewhere just in the nick of time before as many as 50 county employees are laid off next year.
The county officials don’t want to tell you that their lack of cutting of unnecessary expenses this year will cause the layoffs next year. Those same officials who know the truth will then give the bad news to those who were last hired and will be first fired.
The St. Mary’s Board can find $7 million in cuts to the budget by getting rid of wasteful spending habits still part of the flow of bureaucrats who think the county is still in good times and flush with money.
The three Democrat commissioners are hell bent to provide your tax dollars to the feel-good crowd of non-profits who all have their hands out for the “vital services” that they provide, which, if the truth is known, usually is all about saving their own high-priced salaries, not providing services to the poor, the sick or the disadvantaged.
In a budget where dozens of county employees are given county vehicles, filled up at county gas pumps, such as Commissioner Tommy Mattingly’s son, every night, there are plenty of cuts that can be made this year to keep from raising taxes and causing county employees to lose their jobs next year.
Its really simple, blow the budget this year and the 50 most recently hired county employees will be sacrificed next year.
This is Dan Raley’s budget, he can rise to the true crisis the county faces and be known forever as a leader who made a tough decision to save jobs and not raise taxes, as he promised, or he can go down in history as the guy who joined Tommy Mattingly and Jackie Russell in setting in motion the biggest mass firing of county staff in history while at the same time approving massive tax hikes.
Dan knows what to do, but will the Democrats let him do the right thing?
This is the Raley Budget.

Letter to Editor: Maintain Constant Yield