Give Or Take
Jan 28th, 2012 by Frank Knotts
Thge Sussex County Council has released their end of year report in which they tell tax payers that the county collected 3.4 million dollars too much this past year.
Okay, that isn’t exactly what the press release from Chip Guy said, but it is what it amounts to. The report calls it a surplus, but that is only possible if they have collected more than they have spent. Let me give credit where credit is due. The Sussex County Council has consistently kept spending down while not raising property taxes. Though they have from time to time raised fees.
Another reason for the surplus is that the transfer tax revenue was higher than projected. This is always good news, since it is a sign that the home market may be turning the corner.
I do have one reservation about the news of the surplus. That is the news that the council intends to return, in a one time tax credit, a little more than one million dollars on tax bills later this year. The rest will go to the County’s pension funds, local law enforcement, land preservation and various grants.
The problem I have is why not give more back to the people the money was taken from? Instead the council intends to give the money to county worker in the form of pension payments. They will fund local law enforcement. But what should upset all tax payers is the grant money that the council will hand out as they see fit.
In the past the council has given tax dollars to fund little league, fireworks display at a church and funding for other private ventures.
Would it not be more in keeping with conservative principles to allow the tax payers to keep more of their money so that they could decide for themselves which private enterprises to donate to? Shouldn’t local law enforcement receive their funding from their local taxes? As for the county pensions, well maybe we should see a higher percentage donated by the employees themselves.
We have a county council populated with four out of five, by Republicans. Shouldn’t we expect more from them in the way of conservative principles. I am grateful for their efforts to keep property taxes low. I am grateful for them keeping the spending down. But when we find ourselves over taxing the citizens, then the conservative thing to do is to give the money back to the tax payers.
I don’t know what a million dollars spread across all of the tax bills in the county will amount to, but I do know that two million would be more.
Frank, if you only knew. According to Sen. Bunting, who I bumped into last night, the County is sitting on 40 million dollar surplus in another acct. He told me he intends to put out a letter asking the County to take a bigger role in funding themselves instead of relying on the state for such services.
Frank,
The one reservation that I have is that they gave it back. Let me assure you that the very small amount I received was not enough to fill my gas tank. I would rather they kept it and put it in a reserve account to remain untouched until an emergency arises. Businesses and organizations always maintain a reserve for bad times. While new home starts have improved, as we have seen, we cannot rely upon transfer taxes as the primary method of generating revenue.
However, I do think entire council is to commended for their prudent management and decision making to not spend every dollar of revenue. While I may not agree with the council on everything, I give them credit for their financial management.
Sounds like the Council got it about right. Returning something to the people is always right and fair when they are overcharged.
But good times don’t always last, especially when you’re a pocket of sunshine in a vast gray abyss. While the housing market may have done better in Sussex, it’s still a basket case nationally. So putting some aside for pensions and such is a good idea because that money might not be there next year.
Gas prices have soared more than 22 cents per gallon since Christmas and will likely breech $4.00 before Memorial Day, triggering a new recession, depressing tax revenue and driving up the costs of everything the County does. Those dollars the County is saving now will become invaluable later.
Now if only someone could teach the boobs that run New Castle that.
I call B.S. on Anon. #1. The county’s general-fund budget this year is $48 million. You mean to say that someone somehow socked away another $40 million over the years without anyone noticing or any politician raiding it for tax cuts?
You can call BS all you want. You dont think they had a HUGE surplus for the 6 or 7 years of the housing boom? The County receives half of the realty transfer tax on every house sold during this time. Several years ago Dale Dukes told me it was 65 million. We will wait for Sen. Buntings letter and request to the County.
Yeah, there were huge surpluses, but it went out the door as quickly as it came in. They were spending like sailors.
We don’t need to wait for Bunting. Let’s just look at the county’s budget documents. Highlights: The realty transfer tax revenue has gone down by 63 percent since 2005. In 2012, it will bring in $13.5 million dollars – a far cry from $65 million. See http://www.sussexcountyde.gov/docs/budget/2012/2012_Budget_Letter.pdf
There’s just no way someone could hide $40 million dollars in a budget of that size. That would have taken the collaboration of Bob Stickels, David Baker and all of the council members. And I can’t exactly see Vance and Sam agreeing to keep quiet about a surplus of that size and not hand out huge tax rebates to everybody, especially coming in on an election year.
You tell me what they spent it on? The County hasnt had any capital projects of any magnitude. I asked Sam about it yesterday, he got VERY defensive real quick. I asked Cole about it, he didnt deny it.
If they saved it from the building boom and didnt spend it, its still there.
That is unless they bought 40 million dollars worth of championship school rings?
Just called Sen. Bunting, to show I know what I’m talking about the letter mentions former Tina Fallon and western school districts. Bunting says the surplus fund is greater than 40 million.
This is just too much…an Anon, arguing with…anon. Make one wonder if there’s some split personality disorder at work here.
Anon. is correct. When I retired from the county in 08, we had a 67 million dollar surplus.