Control
Spending
County government spending has grown enormously over the past ten
years. Some of
our large spending projects were researched with
questionable accuracy. The revenue predictions for 1%
public safety sales tax to fund jail construction and
related costs were overly optimistic. The county will be
now taking money from our general fund to pay for public
safety costs because the of the current administration's
poor forecasting. We can't fund everything from our
reserves, we'll go broke.
The county borrowed money (without taxpayer approval) a few
years back for road construction, to spur growth, using the
"tax growth" along Perryville Road as justification for
borrowing the money. Perryville revenue growth is a myth.
For the most part, we've simply seen a shifting of
businesses from one area of the county to another. Our
sales tax receipts show we're just keeping up with state
averages for tax income.
Supposedly considerable research went into the projects.
Recently however, a majority of
county board members voted against lowering property tax
rates with hardly
any discussion. It appears that its OK to raise taxes or
spending with little debate, but there's no room to discuss
a tax cut.
Whether its a spending project or a tax cut opportunity, I
believe the county board needs to do a better job in
educating itself and the public on these programs. We need
to justify our spending to you, the taxpayer.
Sincerely,
Paul Gorski,
County Board Member, District Five
Democratic Candidate for
Winnebago County Board Chairman