BC 2011 06 20 Regular - Laserfiche WebLink

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June 20, 2011 (Regular Meeting) Page 509 We do know that you are challenged by many issues on a regular basis which require you to make some very difficult decisions and in some cases decisions which may not be most popular. You are to be commended for the work you do regardless of the outcome of those decisions. I would like to now address one of those issues, that being the upcoming 2012 five year projected budget. I have had the distinct pleasure of attending all of your budget workshops and seeing this board in action. I must say that it has been one of the most educational endeavors I have undertaken in quite some time. While I will be the first to admit that this board has worked hard to hold down the cost of governing Cabarrus County, I would respectfully challenge you to do more. The citizens of this county are having to make some hard financial decisions this year and in many cases have had to do so for the last several years. We are faced with reducing our expenses at every turn and many have lost their jobs and their ability to provide for their families entirely. We The People now call upon those in the "Public Sector" to do the same. I'll be the first to say that we must protect the jobs of our teachers, firefighters and law enforcement officers every way we possibly can. I will be the last to ask for any of their jobs to be eliminated as a way to reduce spending. Unfortunately reduction of spending is what must be done because of the hard economic times we all face. Please hear me clearly, I do not encourage the loss of any of their jobs. Having seen what goes on in your budget workshops I would call upon you to consider the following three challenges: 1) Freeze all county spending at the 2010 budget level for the next 5 years. You know what revenues you had to work with and will not be working on a guestimate or projections of what might be coming in. 2) Challenge every department head to reduce their departments spending by loo every year for the next 5 years starting immediately. Please don't tell me that cannot be done. It comes down to the difference of not wanting to verses not having to. We are currently faced with the fact that we must reduce our spending and it must be done now. Any department head worth what we are paying them should be capable of a 10° departmental cost reduction or we seriously need to consider someone else to run that department. 3) Seriously consider privatizing as many functions of our current system as possible. If there are companies listed in the phone book who can perform any of the functions any department or any persons in a department are currently doing then I encourage you to put out a request for qualifications and /or request for bids to determine if those functions can be done more economically by businesses in the private sector. On behalf of the more than 1,000 citizens who are a part of We The People NC and those who closely identify with our goals and ideals of less expensive government and lower taxes, we would like to thank you for your hard work and considerations of our ideas for reducing spending, preventing any additional taxation and the need to raise property tax rates as proposed in your projected budgets. Bob Scaggs, resident of 5499 Camlan Court in Harrisburg, read the following statement: I am here this evening representing the residents of Harrisburg. I am here to convey my deep concern regarding several items. The first of these items that concerns me deeply is the support of this board in honoring the agreement with the Town of Harrisburg to keep the Fire Tax rates equal for the districts served and not have the municipal residents subsidizing the county residents specifically the Harrisburg Fire district within the County but outside of the City limits of Harrisburg.