By G. Hale
Contributing Columnist

Having more eyes looking can only have a positive outcome. I think this is true in most things we do in crime prevention, electing leaders, producing new products and preparing budgets, to mention a few. Giving more attention to these processes can give us more efficient results, reduced overall costs and hopefully better government. The rest of this article will focus on the Powhatan County Operational Budget, but could also apply to personal budgets, state budgets and of course the federal budget.  The school budget, which is about 65 percent of the total budget, is another project in itself.

As most of you should know, the county budget is requested by the various operating departments and the school system. The district supervisors approve the budget and set the tax rate on the appraised value of your property, so that the budget will be covered by the taxes collected in conjunction with what the State of Virginia contributes toward the budget.

It really doesn’t matter what the current assessment is on the real estate.  It’s the rate per hundred needed to meet the proposed budget that determines the amount of tax. This makes the proposed budget the focus point for any possible reduction in the tax rate.

The budget is presented to the public in published form in the Powhatan Today newspaper as a summary of expenses by operating department and the school system.  It is published weeks before the public hearing to give us a chance to view the budget as presented to the Supervisors. Unfortunately, most citizens look at this summary and say a few chosen words to themselves or their spouse, and then accept it as written in stone.

I was told that last year less than 10 citizens bothered to examine the details of the budget. This should not be the case.  My review of the details showed that the latest budget proposal was based on the previous year’s proposal (not actual expenses) with a general addition of 2 percent added to each line item. No effort was made to take the current expenses, project what the total expense would be for the rest of the year, and then project the next year’s budget with known adjustments that needed to either be included or removed.  The only exception to this procedure was where there was a projected need for a new employee position or if one of the supervisors had a “pet” project he wanted to fund.

There are quite a few errors like multiple line item entries for the same expense account number within the same department.  I found several questionable expenses for items I feel the county shouldn’t need or for items that amounted to contributions ($611,634) to organizations not directly related to the function of our county government. 

The State provides funds for the school food program, yet there was an entry in the budget for school food of $1,357,575.  To me, with what the State provides and what the children pay for their meals, this should be a wash item. 

The same is true of the proffers.  These are funds that are supposed to be paid by the developers to help cover expenses to the county due to the results of the developer’s project. (This ought to also include any changes in the roads needed.)  Here again the budget includes another $450,000 that should be a wash to the budget. What are they doing with all this money?

While I’m at it, there was $630,098 of the 2007 budgeted funds that appeared not to have been spent for the county operations.  No mention was made as to where this money is or how it may have been used.  If anything, it could have been used to pay down our capital debt or used to reduce the rate per hundred we pay on our property assessment.

It is my understanding that each $.01 of the tax rate represents about $350,000 of the budget.  With the school food fund, proffers, questionable contributions, and the previous year’s unspent funds, there could be about $3,049,307 excess in the budget.  This amounts to $.087 of our Real Estate tax rate per hundred. This does not include any line items that may have been listed more than once or any budgeting errors. To determine these errors we would need to see the actual expenses for the year. 

Some other questionable items included in this year’s budget are telephone service $145,105, stationery and supplies $97,715, operation supplies $33,666, printing and binding $72,168, advertising $31,075, travel/mileage $12,996, travel convention/education $58,078, dues and memberships $25,666 and miscellaneous $646,028.  There are more than 42 line items in the 2007 actual expenses that had $0 spent but had funds requested for $678,846 in the ’09 budget.  Not included in this figure are the costs for part-time to full-time employees, the new fire station, emergency services, parks and recreation, and economic development. These expenses are hidden within the departmental budget summaries, but can be found by looking at the individual department budget details. Are all these dollars really needed? Are there any economies of scale such as office supply contracts and printing bids?  Are there any cost saving measures in place?  I don’t know.  Do you?

These are just examples of things I found and may not be 100 percent accurate, but they are what I saw.  All this is to point out the necessity to look more deeply into our county budget.  I was told that the Supervisors had pretty much agreed on a tax rate of $.73 before the public hearing.  After hearing several citizens speak, some requesting pity and some of us presenting valid budget questions and irregularities, the rate was reduced by $.02 per hundred.  It’s possible the rate could have been reduced by at least $.10 or even more.

The budget system needs to have some checks and balances.  The supervisors are busy running the county for us and I believe they don’t have the time needed to fully review the budget requests. It’s up to us to do that for them or at least point out where we feel the requests are out of line. There should be a board-appointed task force with at least two residents from each district. They should be given full access to all the proposed budgets, the current year’s expense reports and whatever they need to do a thorough review of the proposed county budget.  They would report their findings to the board prior to the public hearings. Until this happens we need to get more involved with our county.  When the budget time comes, go to the County Treasurer’s office and get your copy of the proposed budget details.  Go over it with a” fine-toothed comb.”  Be prepared to speak at the public budget hearing.

It’s no wonder that the governments get away with all the taxes they impose on us.  Not enough citizens are looking.  I came up with a list of 70 direct and indirect taxes we pay daily, weekly and annually.  There are probably more I don’t know about.  What are they doing with all this money?

It’s up to us to make sure our county is efficiently run.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there is anything going on in the shadows, but there seems to be nobody watching.  When nobody is watching someone can make a mistake, shift funds around to their advantage, spend our money on things we don’t need and even pay too much for what we get.  We all should know about the “ear-marked pork barrel dollars” our congress has approved.  Most of it has been a pure waste of our tax dollars. If it’s happening there it can happen here too.

In summary, if the quality of the proposed budget is a sample of the quality of the rest of our county governmental functions we are in trouble.  There may be a lot more that needs to be scrutinized than just the budget.

There are several things we should expect from the budget process. First and foremost would be an accurate budget request. Next is the requirement that the departments must individually operate within their respective approved budget.  Deviations in the requests for line item increases of more than the COL should be fully justified as an addendum to the each department’s budget request.  There will be no mass spending of excess budgeted funds to help justify the next year’s requests.  There will be no transfer of funds from one line item to another or between departments.  There should be a full disclosure of the disposition for the total of any unused budget funds.  Finally there will be no hidden agendas for using our tax money.

Who’s watching?  We should be! Remember, having more eyes watching can only have a positive outcome!

Powhatan Today welcomes submissions from county residents for My Point of View. For more information, contact editor Roslyn Ryan at (804) 598-4305 or e-mail editor@powhatantoday.com. Submissions can be mailed to 3229 Anderson Highway, Powhatan, Va. 23139.