Jarboe calls on surplus to be spent on schools

ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN — Crooked teeth or bald head, he said were a Jarboe genetic mark.
“I am blessed” says Commissioner Larry Jarboe, 53, “Time flies when you are having fun.”
Born in La Plata at what is now named Civista Hospital, “not as much community oriented as it used to be,” Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) said his clansmen have been in the area for 360 years.
“There was only one Jarboe that came across the Atlantic. His name was John Jarboe, a Frenchman who was a mercenary and became close friends to the then Governor of Maryland, who was an Englishman,” said Jarboe. “A very unique situation at the time as a Frenchman was working with an Englishman.”
Asked if he could draw an analogy between then and now as he was a Republican but works closely with Democrats, Jarboe laughs, “I guess, nothing changes in 360 years.”
He said though fellow commissioners Dan Raley (D. Great Mills) and Tom Mattingly (R. Leonardtown) had ten items on their agenda, “I have thought of a handful. I have five.” Jarboe, who calls himself commissioner by day and bad dog at night as he is a member of the band named Adinah & The Bad Dogs that plays at the local Chief’s Bar, thought the more promises one made, the harder it was to keep them all.
“The first thing I would like to maintain is the No. 1 quality of life that we have here in St. Mary’s County,” he said. He added a recent national survey determined that St. Mary’s County had the No. 1 quality of life in the mid-Atlantic region. “I intend to keep it that way,” he said.
“No. 2 we must keep our farming heritage in St. Mary’s County intact,” he said. He said he worked hard to preserve the heritage and to reduce the size of development district and town centers, while encouraging diverse agricultural opportunities.
“This was particularly favorable to Amish and Mennonite communities who don’t want high density and desire less government interference,” he said.
He said he was relieved to see that developers knew there would be a no-no on big developments in the rural preservation district. “That is keeping most of the better developers focused on working in the development districts and town centers,” he said.
He said, “You have two consistent votes, me and Kenny Dement, to hold the line on mega-development in the rural preservation district.” Without naming McKay or Mattingly, he said there were two votes who have often supported big projects in the rural preservation district. “And then there is Dan Raley, who has been on both sides of the fence.”
He said it was wrong to assume creating economic diversity and preserving agriculture heritage could not go hand in hand, adding economic diversity was the third item on his mind.
“The navy base is the No. 1 driving economic machine. In the past tobacco was king in St. Mary’s County,” said Jarboe, but he said economic diversity was still needed.
He was happy to note that some farmers had chosen to grow grapes for vine making. “The town of Leonardtown is putting in a vinery to help accomplish this.”
He said the Amish community grew over a million pounds of burley tobacco and produce farmers are making a good living selling their goods at the Mennonite produce auction house.
An ardent champion of fuel self-sufficiency, he said he believed corn and soybeans milled and processed locally can provide not only food opportunities but also fuel opportunities. “The American farmer feeds the world. He can certainly fuel our country as well with ethanol and biodiesel,” he said.
He regretted the American economy and politics were being blackmailed by Mid-eastern terrorists and extremists because of the country’s dependence on crude oil. “Look at what is happening. Iran is dictating our stock market even now because of fuel cost and as result we are going de ja vu.”
Preserving the thrust towards promoting tourism, he said, was the fourth goal in his mind for preserving tourism. “The present board has done more to encourage tourism in St. Mary’s County than any other board of commissioners at any time in history,” Jarboe claimed. He said the County was actually developing a tourism center at the northern end.



“Regardless of who is our next sheriff I want to be able to work with him on issues,”





“People coming down here to enjoy our wonderful quality of life, leaving their money, and going back home to work hard, and to coming back the next weekend and spending more,” he said impishly. “That to me is very clean business.”
Maintaining the good work and relationship the commissioners had built with the board of education (BoE) and extending that to the sheriff’s department was the fifth item on his aims and objects, he said.
“Regardless of who is our next sheriff I want to be able to work with him on issues,” Jarboe said. “I made commitments to full funding of both the BoE and Sheriff’s department during the last elections. I also knew that it would take a three-term process, 9 to 12 years, to make that happen in the sheriff’s department.”
He said the commissioners’ board had been able to provide full funding or more every year to the board of education. As far as David Zylak’s sheriff’s department went, “His requests are so high we have not been able to do that.” But he said he was optimistic of being able to meet the budget requirements of the sheriff’s department also.
He said keeping zero-growth on rates of property and income tax was his sixth item. “We would continue not to increase tax rates on property or personal income,” he said. “The caps that are in place will stay in place and I look forward to finding opportunities for actual tax reductions,” he said.
But he said he did not agree with the tax rebate idea forwarded by Commissioner President Tommy McKay. “How do you fairly give a tax rebate is the No. 1 issue,” he said. If you divide the number of citizens by the number you decide to return you may come up with a number of 25 dollars or 50 dollars per person.
“We need to make a list of our future capital needs which include four or five schools and their sites, solid waste and the detention center,” he said. That $20 million dollar surplus should fund those construction needs, he said, benefiting the entire county.
“Better yet hold the constant yield, where people who have invested in St. Mary’s County in property receive a savings-based tax reduction” he said. He said it was only fair that a person who paid more got back more. “It’s the gift that keeps on giving,” he said. “And that will benefit everybody.”
Asked if he agreed to the saying all politics was dirty, he said on a national level he would have to agree that basically the elected officials submit to large money interest groups, for example the big oil corporations and it did not matter whether Democrats or GOP was in power. “You don’t see issues like American energy independence coming on the table,” he said. He regrets that no Democrat or Republican is promoting that very important public agenda.
But he said on a local level St. Mary’s had elected officials who believe in voting according to their conscience and trying to maintain high ethical standards regardless of any party affiliation. “Yes we make mistakes, but I would like to say they are honest mistakes,” he said.
He said some of the things he had wanting to accomplish but have not succeeded so far were public transparency during selections on boards, committees and commissions, curtailing the county employing people who serve liquor at the golf course and maintaining the constant yield on taxes.
“Of the seven years I have been a commissioner I have held the constant yield for three years. He said for three years, 1995, 1996, and 1997 the property taxes remained the same, and the next four years he wasn’t on the commission that spiked. “The county literally went down the tube fast and now there’s a Jarboe back on the board and the county is in good shape,” he said.