I have two kids who are preparing for the back to school season next week. They are excited to see some of their friends that they have not seen over the summer. I am just hoping that the upcoming school year will not provide us with too many disappointments from the schools of Wicomico County. My daughter was talking about schools in Talbot County the other day because her grandparents had told her that every student in Talbot County high schools gets a laptop computer. Talbot County has a program called the One to One Laptop Initiative. Through this program, every 9th grade student in Talbot County gets a laptop computer that they will use until graduation. The plan is to extend the program to 8th grade students in 2010. Talbot County is using a combination of government funding, grants and community donations to make this program possible.

My daughter is entering Parkside High School this year, and she is concerned that she won’t get a locker for her belongings because another student told her that sometimes there weren’t enough lockers to go around. She is just leaving Bennett Middle School where some classes could not bring textbooks home because other classes had to share them. We have seen an extremely high turnover rate among teachers, and I also heard a rumor that some classes at Bennett Middle may have as many as 36 students in a classroom this year. This makes it difficult to get excited about the upcoming school year, but like many parents, we will be active in the PTA and hope for the best.

I will have to spend some time trying to rationalize a solution to the continuing decline in the quality of education in Wicomico County. My first theory would be that a combination of fiscal restrictions due to the revenue cap and the physical restrictions of our overcrowded school buildings are the main contributors to this decline. We are surrounded by school districts that provide a more attractive venue for teachers, and it makes me admire even more the teachers who have remained dedicated to the students of Wicomico County. So tomorrow we will join hundreds of other families on Back to School Night to pick up schedules and meet teachers. Hopefully we will have good things to say in June, 2008, after 180 days of school in Wicomico County.

It looks like Mr. Duvafiles will have to find another topic to pester us with regarding Rick Pollitt and the Wicomico County Government. Soon he will no longer be able to complain about the open internal auditor position in the county government. The position has been advertised in the paper and on the county’s web site with the application process scheduled to close on July 9th.

The County Council has shown that it is willing to make fiscally responsible decisions following their installation on December 5, 2006. Proceedings in the first meeting of the new council included discussion on the Salisbury Mall TIF that had been tabled by the previous council. The new council made the correct decision and voted against the measure which means that citizens of the county are not financially haunted by the debacle that is the redevelopment of the old mall.

The County Council also made small steps during the recent budget process to remove spending items that were not seen as essential given the restrictions of the revenue cap. The initial funding for an area skate park was cut from the budget. If the council had allowed this commitment to be included, it would have led to even more costly obligations for matching grants and liability. The council also removed the funding of fees for facility rental for local high school proms. Rental rates at the Wicomico Civic Center have contributed to the relocation of these celebrations to other facilities. It is quite possible that the schools in question would still use other more attractive venues in place of the aging local arena even if this funding was available.

Some people in our community will never be satisfied with the efforts of our county government, but it seems clear by their initial actions that the new council takes their responsibility very seriously.

The Daily Times correctly stated Rick Pollitt’s position on the revenue cap in the paper today. In a previous story about a similar speech to the Rotary Club, the DT misrepresented the county executive’s position on the cap, saying that the CE wanted to completely remove the revenue cap. This mistake by the paper was mentioned by County Councilman McCain during a radio interview. Restrictions on the county budget have already caused a delay in the completion of the Bennett High School project. Several of Maryland’s larger jurisdictions are already discussing how they will be affected by the looming $1.5 billion budget deficit facing our state next year. It is almost inevitable that state funds to counties will begin to decrease in the near future. Wicomico is one of only four counties in the state with a tax or revenue cap, which means that these governments would not have the option to raise property taxes to offset state cuts. County Executive Pollitt is obviously aware of the future budget struggles, and it makes much more sense to plan ahead rather than wait for a budget crisis. Pollitt needs to move on to the next step in his campaign and lay out the facts on how the council and citizens can begin the process to modify the revenue cap. Members of the county council who share Pollitt’s concern over the financial condition of Wicomico County need to begin to voice their support as well, so that the vocal minority of opponents will not dominate the conversation. If the changes are going to require a referendum vote, the planning must start now.

Mr. Duvafiles complains today that the Wicomico County Council passed the budget, and, “Neither the executive nor council even considered the possibility of reducing taxes.”

The 2% revenue cap resulted in a required cut to the Real Property tax rate of about 6 cents, from .942 to .881 per $100 dollars of property value. This means that if the phased in assessment for your property as of 7/1/2007 is $232,596 then your tax bill will be $2049 at the new rate instead of $2191 at the old rate. By my calculations, that is a tax cut of $142 for this citizen of the county. The council passed the budget with a tax cut, decreased the Board of Education request by $1 million, and only supplied the Public Works department about a third of what it needs to properly maintain our roads. Think about that the next time you hit a pothole, and your mechanic can’t spell alignment correctly on the work order.

Down the road a little, the Worcester County council passed a $175 million dollar budget which includes a revenue increase of $20 million because they did not include a tax cut in their final draft. Go complain about that.

And to top it off, according to the Daily Times, the Worcester County budget includes funding that will allow the Board of Education to fill seven new positions at $40,390 each while granting 7.5-percent salary increases.

Guess where the teachers are going.

I’m with ya!

After many weeks of reading blog posts about this and that on Robinson on the Radio, I finally listened to the show for the first time today. I am usually not near a radio at 3:00, but today, quite by accident, I had the chance to listen to the councilman that I voted for on ROTR. Councilman McCain discussed many topics with ROTR, from his background as a native of Wicomico County to the issues that are currently the focus of the county council. Mr. McCain also directed part of the discussion to a correction of the Daily Times story saying that CE Pollitt wanted to do away with the revenue cap. The councilman was at the Rotary Club meeting where CE Pollitt made his statements, and according to Mr. McCain’s account, Pollitt stated that he would like to see the revenue cap modified, not ended. It will be interesting to see how this correction is handled in the Times.

ROTR provided an informative hour of radio, and I will probably listen again when I can. I just have one question. What exactly is a “pet peeve project”?!?

According to Brian Foret, Director of Facility Services for the Wicomico County Board of Education, the completion date of the new Bennett High School project has been delayed until 2011 due to cash flow restrictions in the budget. The original completion date was planned for 2010. Mr. Foret’s comments can be seen in the current episode of Working Together For Children showing on PAC 14.

Mr. Foret stated that the JMB High School is still in the design phase, and his department still needs to complete logistics, design review and bid preparations. The project should go to bid in March 2008, with a project delivery date of December 2011. Mr. Foret said that the project had “originally targeted a much more agressive delivery date, but “due to constraints in availability of funding”, they “have had to adjust the schedule in order to accommodate the cash flow.”

Mr. Foret also gave an update on the current Prince Street renovation and construction. The original school encompassed about 55,000 square feet in a conglomeration of buildings. The new school will contain about 77,000 square feet with many more amenities including a fully wireless capable computer network. The building will reach “substantial completion” in November of 2007, but the WCBOE has decided not to relocate to the school until after the completion of testing in April 2008.

The revenue cap in Wicomico County seemed like a simple concept to the voters when it was approved. Let’s keep our property tax rate from going up. The citizens responded to a vocal minority led by an organization named VOICE. Unfortunately, the citizens were not shown the big picture, and it would have been difficult to predict the explosion of growth that would follow the vote to enforce a revenue cap. There has been a domino effect caused by the restrictions of the cap that has tipped to our roads and our schools and ultimately our quality of life here in Wicomico County. Another effect that was not advertised by VOICE during its campaign is the effect of the revenue cap on Personal Property taxes. The revenue cap has kept the income from the existing base of property growing at 2% per year. This growth rate means that the Real Property tax rate must go down. The Personal Property tax rate is 2.5 times the Real Property rate according to state law. The decrease in the Real Property tax rate has resulted in a decrease in revenue from Personal Property taxes of almost $1 million over the past two years. Some citizens will look at that decrease and say ‘Great!!’, but the teachers who are leaving our classrooms for other opportunities will tell us that we need to look at the big picture. The Real Property tax rate has been reduced from .993 in 2005 to .881 in 2007. That decrease means that the taxes on a $200,000 house have gone down by $224 in two years. Shouldn’t we be willing to pay $18.66 more per month for better schools, roads and public safety. I am looking at the big picture, and for the first time in my 20 years as a citizen of Wicomico County, I don’t like what I see.

Delmarva Dealings is one of the local blogs that I click to on a regular basis. I usually look past the posts about dealings outside of Delmarva for news of local interest. A recent post concerning local government budgets bemoans The Demise of the Fiscal Conservative . I would like to take issue on the points that were made about the Wicomico County budget, since I am not a city resident.

I find DD’s statement that, “I will be the first to admit that I have spent very little time reading the proposed Wicomico County budget,” but we must cut something, to be just as arbitrary as any Salisbury city councilperson’s argument that they haven’t read the budget, but let’s raise taxes anyway.

DD suggests that the Public Information Officer of the executive’s office should be cut. According to the Wicomico County budget, the total cost of the Administration/Executive function is $545,739 or .41% of the budget. The removal of the PIO would have a negligible impact on the numbers. This is nickel and dime rhetoric that sounds good in theory, but does nothing to meaningfully improve the budget.

DD then suggests that the bureaucracy of the Wicomico County Board of Education should be the next to go. The WCBOE proposed budget is $168,176,000 with the county contributing $49,443,053 to that amount. The county’s portion of the cost of the Administrative function of the WCBOE is $1,386,568 or 2.8% of the county’s total contribution. Even if the entire administative function were cut from the budget, this $1.3 million would pay for only 7% of the Prince Street School project. Once again, nickels and dimes.

We have 66,000 square feet of portable classrooms in Wicomico County schools. That is the equivalent of the new Prince Street School. We have 24 portables acting as an annex to the main office of the BOE. We have overcrowded classrooms. We have a high turnover rate among teachers. We are replacing teachers with less qualified applicants because the WCBOE salaries are not competetive with other districts. Wicomico County schools are in decline because of budget restrictions. I have witnessed the decline first hand as an active volunteer in my childrens’ schools for the past nine years. The education of our children is the single biggest investment made by the people of Wicomico County, but the explosion of growth in the area has overwhelmed our resources. Doing away with a Public Information Officer or the theoretical BOE bureaucracy are not substantive arguments against the Wicomico County budget. This nickel and dime rhetoric is irrelevant compared to the bigger problems facing our schools.

I will start by saying that I voted against the revenue cap in Wicomico County. The county should be considered a business, and a business can’t reinvest in itself and support growth with a revenue cap. I have never been one to complain about paying taxes. Taxes are the price of admission to this county or any other. I voted for the people who are responsible for spending my tax dollars, and I trust that they have the best interests of the county in mind while they make their decisions.

I also don’t think that many of the people who voted for the revenue cap knew what they were voting for. Most voters for the revenue cap thought that they were simply keeping their property tax rate from going up. Even the smartest among us would have trouble explaining the 2% or CPI rule and its effect on the future of our county. And if you asked most people today, they would not be able to tell you that their county property tax rate will be going down by about 6 cents per $100 of value in the next budget. They still think that taxes are too high, even though the reality is quite the opposite considering the crisis that Wicomico County Schools are approaching.

I have one number that should be enough to make people realize what a problem the revenue cap has created in our school system. That number is 66,000 square feet. This number is close to the size of the new Prince Street School, but that number is 67,000. My number, 66,000 square feet, is the total size of the portable classrooms in use by Wicomico County schools. That’s right. We have the equivalent of an entire school in portable classrooms. And that is just classrooms. This does not include the 24 portables in use as a BOE annex at the main office or the temporary location for Prince Street while their school is renovated.

Former Councilman Taylor was the first person who tried to express the problems created by the revenue cap. He compiled data on lost revenues that could have been invested in our schools before he left office. I applaud County Executive Pollitt for his efforts to bring awareness to the restrictions on our county caused by the revenue cap. Even Councilwoman Prettyman, who I have observed to be quite diligent in her efforts to make informed decisions has been quoted as saying that it is difficult to govern under a revenue cap.

Any member of the Wicomico County Council who believes that the county and our schools are suffering under the revenue cap, should stand up for the repeal of the revenue cap and risk losing their next election in an effort to do the right thing. They will not have any trouble finding areas that have been neglected due to the restrictions of the revenue cap. They can start with the school buildings and move on to the high turnover rate of teachers due to the problems created by overcrowded schools. We are replacing teachers with less qualified candidates, because the salaries in Wicomico County are not competetive with other districts. The list will be long, and if the council members can communicate their vision for a thriving Wicomico County, they will be successful in saving us from the approaching crisis. The revenue cap was put into place before the explosion of growth our county has seen in the last few years. The revenue cap is causing a crisis for our schools, and the education of our children is this county’s most important responsibility.