Holding Feet to the Fire

Disappointment sometimes comes in large doses, as was the case for me June 13, 2008. An article in the local paper about the supervisors approving user fee increases to several County Departments caught my eye. Those departments included Building, Environmental Health and Planning. These increases are significantly large and inappropriate at this time. My disappointment stems from the fact that I worked to elect each one of these supervisors. Most everyone, rightly or wrongly, believes the county is in an economic slow down. Construction is way down. The contractors I talk with are scratching their heads. One I spoke with over coffee asked if I had ever seen it like this. And it is not just construction, with gasoline at $4.69/gallon and rising, most other businesses are slumping.
If my memory serves me, during the last presidential election cycle, when there was a small but significant downturn here locally, the Board of Sups gave themselves a significant raise. Then several months ago they unwisely spent our money to rent a very expensive building to house the District Attorney. This was followed by a hefty wage increase for all the County Department heads and the County CEO. And now they top it off by significantly increasing the cost of county services. Here is what it’ll cost you to use county government after August 4th: Building Department--$125.78/hr, Environmental Health--$143.22/hr, Planning--$119.62/hr, Agriculture--$86.44/hr and County Surveyor fees will be $128.00/hr. Bear in mind that you actually pay twice each time you use a service from the county. The first time you pay is through your taxes. Taxes support the county budget and within that budget every department is funded to perform its function. A department budget includes wages for all in that dept. and office equipment and supplies. If a department’s services are not needed, operation continues at a slower pace and at the end of the year, that Dept may have a surplus. The second time you pay is when you actually use a service and those costs just went up. I’ve been told that user fees are an attempt by the county to recoup the money used by each department for the expense of running that department. Does that sound like double talk to you? Does that sound like a Board of Supervisors’ who cares about you as a constituent?
What this appears to be is a board that is trying to keep the county coffers full in a time of supposed economic tribulation. Construction is down and as a result so is user fees. Bureaucratic logic dictates that in order to maintain their departments financial status quo fees must be raised. Hence, the less you use county departments the more it costs you when you do. I remember in the 1970’s when we had a drought in the southern part of the state and water rationing was common. Homeowners were asked to reduce their usage by 10 –15%. Since we all knew that the drought was in fact real, we complied. As a result, Department of Water and Power revenues went down with the reduction of personal water use. Guess what? The DWP increased their rates to compensate for the loss of revenue.
This is exactly what this Board of Supervisors is doing right now. I strongly urge every member of this organization to send an email to their supervisor and demand that they rescind this fee increase until the economy justifies it. Remind them that they are all elected by the people of this county, that they work for us and that they can be recalled by us. If there is not enough money coming in to completely fund each department, then three choices exist; reduce unnecessary spending elsewhere, reduce the size and function of that Department, or ask for a tax increase from the people and justify the request. The BOS and the government bureaucracy is side stepping asking for a tax increase that they know they would not get because it requires a 2/3 majority vote of the people. Raising user fees only requires a majority of their vote. It is time to rein in this board. Let them know we are not happy and that their political future hangs in the balance.