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November <br /> 19~! <br /> <br /> To: Board of Commissioners <br /> From= Bill Simmons <br /> Subject: Cost Containment Program <br /> <br />In recent months I have expressed my concern on several <br />occasions about controlling the rising costs of County <br />Government. I don't think anyone would argue with the <br />statement that most people are fed up with paying more <br />taxes. For most families, taxes of one sort or the <br />other consume more than 50% of the average families <br />income. As a result of that public sentiment, I would <br />be opposed to increasing taxes to cover increasing <br />costs under almost any circumstance. <br /> <br />We all know it is easy to say I'm against raising <br />taxes, but it is much harder to do. The difficulty of <br />not doing so is going to be complicated even more by <br />two trends in state and federal government. Those <br />trends are taking locally levied taxes away and <br />spending them at the state level and mandating programs <br />on counties and cities, but not funding them. Both <br />have the same effect, they force local property taxes <br />to be raised for state and federal programs that local <br />government has no control over. <br /> <br />The state legislature passeO a law this year that will <br />take reimbursements away from counties and cities in <br />1993~94 and .put them .in the state's budget to help <br />balance North Carolina's budget. For Cabarrus County <br />this amounts to losing $3.7 million in income from <br />these reimbursements. Each one of the cities in <br />Cabarrus will also lose this money as well. The money <br />is called reimbursements because a couple of years ago <br />the state legislature took the intangibles tax, <br />inventory tax and some other locally oriented taxes <br />away from county government and put it in the state <br />budget. At that time the state promised to reimburse <br />counties and cities , hence the name reimbursements. <br /> <br />In addition, the federal government is expanding the <br />eligibility for free medical care, housing, foodstamps <br />and aid for dependent children. The county is mandated <br />to participate at a fixed percentage, regardless of <br />whether our local tax budget can afford. That cost <br />county taxpayers almost an extra million this year. <br /> <br />The State Department of Corrections is looking at a <br />plan now to mandate that criminals with shorter jail <br />terms serve their sentences in local county jails <br /> <br /> Board of County Commissioners <br /> P,O {~ox 707 , Conct~¢~. NC 2802~-0707 * {TGg) ?~,~.B1® * C~ado,-.e 375-O.~2 <br /> <br /> <br />