VA-05 Republican Debate in Lynchburg Saturday Night

more about "ABC 13 – To Go", posted with vodpod

These Are the People Who Ran Cumberland County Into a Ditch

Although I am sure their roles differed and the extent to which they were driving the ‘car,’ these are the people who were in charge in Cumberland County when the car went into the ditch. Or when the county found itself in big trouble on the income side of the ledger.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you…

The Cumberland Cabal

County Administrator Judy Ownby

Assistant County Administrator Jill Matthews

Former Chair of the Board Bill Osl

Former Vice-Chair of the Board Van Petty

These are the people, only two of them elected, that put Cumberland County in a hole so big that property taxes will need to be raised an estimate of 45% over their current levels.

There are also many other facets of this I will be covering in the coming days and weeks. Like how Jill Mathews, in charge of Finance for the county, could have allowed the administration of the county to come to this precarious spot at the edge of a cliff.

Property appraisals that were done are also suspect, as they came in high for the recent economy, and not at all what was expected by a good number of residents. We will look at the values and the sales, foreclosures and other figures to ascertain what led the appraiser hired by us (the county) to return with such high values.

I have a theory. The higher the change to the positive in those property values, the more the ‘revenue neutral’ figure would be. That way, the rise in property taxes (it was coming anyway) wouldn’t seem so sudden. Remember, this work was done throughout the 2009 calendar year.

Why have a Finance Manager if the result is that she helped gas up the car just before it went off the cliff?

One last thing today: In late June of 2009, the news was made public that not all the budget could be funded on July 1st. Half the budget was funded and, during the interim period, the county received a loan from USDA Rural Development for $2m in order to have the Industrial Development Authority buy the Community Center, a building the county already owned.

Much more to come in this story.

The photographs used above are directly from the County website. I have used them here to illustrate this story. In no way do I consider them mine, but they belong to all the residents of the county. They are shown here in the exact size they were obtained from the website.

In any case, they are not copyright material and the people above are public figures, shown on a publicly funded website.

Cumberland County Deep In Debt, Property Taxes Likely to Rise 45%

A source very close to the situation has told me that basically Cumberland County is out of money, and as a result, property taxes will need to be raised 45% or more in order to pay the bills for the rest of this fiscal year and possibly beyond.

I have heard lots of complaints about the reassessment of property values in the last 6 months of 2009, in that contrary to lots of counties, Cumberland values went up by, in some cases, 15-20%. This is in an economic climate that has other counties also scrambling for money, but due to 3-10% decreases.

Virginia law states that property taxes are not allowed to increase more than 50% in any given period between assessments. It will be interesting to see resident’s reactions when this is more well known. Cumberland is a staunchly conservative area, and one of the poorest counties in this area, if not the 5th Congressional District.

In Order to Balance Budget, Cumberland County Imposes 15% Cut on Cumberland Schools, on Top of State Cuts

According to a very well placed source, the Cumberland County Supervisors have cut 15% of the funding they usually provide to the schools.

Instead of doing the right thing, the Supervisors decided to cut our children’s futures instead of cutting their own budget and putting their own house in order. In December the Supervisors received a loan from USDA Rural Development in order to buy one of their buildings from itself. The Industrial Development Authority bought the community center from the County for $2 million dollars. Where this money went, who knows.

It is certain it did not go to a plan to save the schools from the large cuts imposed by the state, which totaled $600,000 during the current year, and $1.6 million from the coming budget in July.

I will be getting a statement from the new chair of the Board of Supervisors as soon as I can contact him, about how and why this has happened. I have not heard anything like this from reading news reports from any other localities in the Commonwealth.

Governor McDonnell’s plan to force the 65% soluti0n on schools, thereby saving money for classroom instruction seems to be an idea that is dead in the water.

I hope the Supervisors can sleep at night after they pull this. I know there are two children in this house that will wonder why their schools have pulled the plug on programs and money to run them. I hope the parents of all the other children affected will tell them the truth.

The Board of Supervisors couldn’t plan or think far enough ahead to avoid such a situation? Now the School Board will have to cut another $0.5 million (15% of the local budget contribution) to cover the localities lack of fiscal responsibility.

The End of the TelePrompTer Joke

George W. Bush reading from a TelePrompTer on the USS Lincoln

President George W. Bush uses a TelePrompTer when he erroneously claimed that the mission was accomplished.

Why no jokes and derisive comments about people like Bush and others that use that device? Because Republicans who make those comments are hypocrites.

Farmville Fishwrap, er… Herald Pretends Bill Osl Still Chair of BOS

The recent article detailing the BOS meeting in Cumberland County was interesting in that almost no one was quoted as saying anything in the article except the former chair, Bill Osl.

Tim Kennell, the current Chair of the BOS was not mentioned at all, nor was District 5 Supervisor Bob Oertel.

Farmville Herald Fishwrap only prints what it wants to anyway, and never anything negative about it’s favorites, like Bill Osl, or Howard Simpson, Buckie Fore or Jonathon Pickett of  Prince Edward County. Bill Osl is just a member of the board now, I think you can cover someone else.

I am still trying to decide whether the newspaper is better as a birdcage liner or as a place for the puppy to pee on.

NOTE: Steve Wall: I did not use any of your precious words from your disgusting newspaper during the making of this article.