Listed below are the budget changes that I presented  to the County Commissioners on Thursday night to reduce the proposed tax increase to 2 cent, give more money to the schools, the arts, the YMCA's and  several other community based organizaitons and programs within our Community. 

These amendments were to the proposed budget that was presented by  Paul Gibson.  The budget that was proposed by Paul Gibson called for a 2.99 cent tax increase, eliminated all funds to the Homeless Shelter, the arts, the YMCA's, and several other community based programs within our Community.  His budget also called for only giving the school system 8.5 million dollars, eliminating the House Arrest Program as an alternative to incarceration and the removal of Rob Bencini as Director of Economic Development. It is not surprising that Paul's budget passed, because he had six votes going into the meeting.  However, the real losers are the tax payers.  Please forgive the format, the blog lay out would not allow me to post the budget by using columns.

Guilford County Budget

Amendments as proposed by

Commissioner Melvin "Skip" Alston

Commissioner Carolyn Coleman

Commissioner Bruce Davis

Additional Income: Increase tax collection rate to 98.5% = 2,241.024, eliminate Employee Merit Increases and reduce employee work day by 30mins. without decrease in pay = 1,500,000, decrease CIP fund for Sale of Eugene St. property = 1,000,000, increase Sales Tax projections = 500,000, additional Inmate Welfare Fund for House Arrest Program = 150,000, establish Voluntary Retirement program (68 ret.emp. @ 30,000) = 2,040,000, eliminate Retiree call Back policy = 500,000: Total additional funding for budget = 7,931,024

Additions to Budget funding: Increase funding to School Board = 2,500,000, Wyndham Golf Tournament = 122,000, Greensboro United Arts Council = 210,000, International Civil Rights Center = 250,000, Hayes Taylor YMCA = 175,000, Bryan Family YMCA = 50,000, Atelier Art Gallery = 50,000, Greensboro Bicentennial Commission = 50,000, Carolina Theatre of Greensboro = 34,000, High Point Museum = 50,000, High Point Area Arts Council = 73,500, Shakespeare Festival = 45,000, Malachi House = 25,000, Summit House = 40,000, Greensboro Urban Ministry = 30,000, The Center for Visual Arts = 5,000, Mary's House = 5,000, House Arrest program = 150,000, Carl Chavis YMCA = 50,000: Total additional funding expenses = 3,939,500.

The net increase in funding minus expenses = $3,991,524, which is equal to .09 cent reduction in the proposed tax rate that was offered by Paul Gibson's budget that raised your taxes 2.99 cent. 

Even if the six commissioners that passed the budget, still didn't want to fund the schools, the arts, the YMCA's and the other Community Base Organizations, they  could have taken the 7.9 million dollars in additional funds to reduce the tax rate to 1 cent, instead of 2.99 cent, thus saving the tax payers 7.9 million dollars. But, because of ego and self serving motives, they chose to raise the taxes on the tax payers, without justification.  They should be ashame of themselves.

Yes, I have voted for tax increases in the past.  However, I have never voted for a tax increase that could not be justified and one that was not need to pay the debt of the county.  

On Monday June 25th I will post the budget that I presented to the County Commissioners on last Thursday that they voted down by a 7 to 4 vote. 

The budget that I proposed would have generated another 7.9 million dollars of income for the county, funded all of the art programs, YMCA's, Community Base Organizations and given an additional 2.5 million dollars to the Guilford County School System. 

The budget that I proposed would have done all of the above and only increased the tax rate by 2 cent, rather than the 2.9 cent tax increase that was passed by a 6 to 5 vote.

The questions are why would the County Commissioners increase the tax rate on the citizens of this County more than what is necessary?  Why wouldn't the six Commissioners that passed the budget give serious consideration to the additional income that I presented to them?  They could have called for a recess and asked the County staff to examine the information that I had presented, to determine if the figures were correct or not.  Instead they chose to completely ignored the information that was presented to them and raised the taxes on the citizens by .9 cent without any justifiable reason.  This is approximately 4 million dollars out of your pocket.

For the record, I tried to share this information with several of the Commssioners before the meeting on Thursday night and they did not want to hear any ideas that would have taken them away from the deal that they had already agreed upon with the six Commissioner that have been planning their budget since they met at Lucky 32 on May 24th without including the African American Commissioner in the discussion.

I want you the public to take a look at these figures and give me your opinion. 

Six Guilford County Commissioners are scheduled to adopt the County Budget on Thursday, June 21st which will include a tax increase of approximately 2.9 cent, no funding from the Arts, no funding for the YMCA, no funding for the Wyndham Championship Golf Tournament, less money for the schools and yes, no funding for the Civil Rights Center and Museum.

This budget has been put together by Paul Gibson, John Parks, Kirk Perkins, Kaye Cashion, Mike Winstead and Billy Yow.  Paul Gibson the Chairman of the board has purposely decided to leave the three African American Commissioners out of the discussion of putting together this budget simply because we will not support the building of a new jail at the cost of 105 million dollars that is not needed.  Instead he has decided to team up with Billy Yow. 

Billy Yow as you may recall is the Commissioner that in 2003 printed a Tee Shirt that was sold briefly on the Internet that showed a little white boy, holding a Confederate Flag in one hand and urinating on the letters of the NAACP.  Billy Yow is also the Commissioner that stated publicly during the search for a new County Manager in 2003, that he will not hire a Manager if he or she  was a member of the NAACP.

Over the past six months that Paul Gibson has been the Chairman of the Board, he has made it clear that he does not intend on including the African American Commissioners in the discussion of running this County.  Under his leadership we have had a record number of votes along racial lines.  We have brought this to his attention on several occassions, however, he has turned a cold shoulder everytime we attempt to talk with him. 

Let me remind you, Paul Gibson is a Democrate who ran at large.  Who campaigned hard in the African American community, visiting churches, going to BBQ's and kissing black babies.  In return the African American community voted for him and made him the highest vote getter in the election.  Since that time Paul Gibson has done a 180 degree turn on support for African American causes.

Billy Yow stated publicly at the last Commissioners meeting that he will not vote for a budget that included funding for the Civil Rights Museum.  Paul Gibson has agreed with Billy Yow to also eliminate all funding not just for the Civil Rights Museum, but funds for the Hayes Taylor YMCA, Atelier Art Gallery, Malachi House and a host of other programs that are located in the African American community.

Also as part of the deal for Billy Yow to support the budget, he has demanded that Rob Bencini the Director of Economic Development for the County be fired and Paul and the others have agreed to do just that.  To may it look smoother, Rob will be removed from his position as Director of Economic Development immediately or shortly after the budger is passed and the Manager will assign Rob to another job within the County.  This will be only a temporary situation, because Billy has also asked the Manager to contact the Guilford County Partnership to see if they can find a job there for Rob, so he can be gone from Guilford County completely.  For the record Rob is a White male, however Billy has made it clear that he does not care for Rob one bit.  Simply because Rob will not allow Billy to bully him around, like Billy does some of the other Department heads.

The budget that will be presented by the six Commissioners stated above will probably be the one that passes, however, I will present another budget for their consideration, that will have a lower tax increase, if not, no tax increase and will be able to fund the arts, other programs and give the school system more funds. 

Please come out on Thursday or tune in on cable channel 13 at 5:30 to see how all of this will play out. 

Billy Yow has said over and over again, that the only reason he is supporting a proposed 3 cent tax increase is because when the voters approved a 300 million dollar bond package for the school system in 2003, they knew they were voting themselves a tax increase and he is only supporting a tax increase to cover that debt.  

However, the truth of the matter is that the tax debt for the 300 million dollar bond package this year is only 8.9 million dollars.  The budget plan lead by Billy Yow and Paul Gibson calls for using 6 million dollars of the lottery fund to pay for the school debt.  That means that if the debt for the 300 million dollar bond is only cost the county 2.9 million dollars this year. Therefore,  Mr. Yow shoud only be voting for less than a 1 cent tax increase instead of a 3 cent tax increase  Ask Mr. Yow to explain that.  The additional 2  cent tax increase that Billy Yow is supporting equates to over 8 million dollars in addtional taxes that we don't need from the tax payers to pay for the 300 million dollar school bond package for the schools. 

Where is Billy's justification in supporting a 3 cent tax increase?  Billy is only supporting the tax increase because he and Paul Gibson have hidden motives in working together to raise your taxes.  Billy and Paul coincidentally are also supporting a COP program for the funding of the 105 million dollar jail.  The plan is to put the 105 million dollar jail on the November ballot knowing that is will be defeated, then Paul, Billy, Kirk Perkins, Kaye Cashion, John Parks and Mike Winstead ,will then vote to fund the jail with Certificates of Participation, better known as COPS.

What Billy and Paul are also not telling the public is, if the jail bonds pass or if the jail is funded with COPS, there will be a tax increase for that debt of 4-5 cent and another 20 -23 million dollars per year to fund the operation of the new jail, which is another 4-5 cent increase in your taxes.  That will be an additional 8-10 cent increase in your taxes on top of what your increase will be this year from the County and the City.

You can shoot the messenger if you want to, but I am only telling you what they don't want you to know.  This year's County Budget can easily be passed with no increase in property  taxes, if we as County Commissioners and Staff were to put our heads together to make it happen. Even without that happening, the increase still should be no more than 1.5 to 2 cent.

However, Paul Gibson is bending over backwards to have it his way or no way.  He wants to give the School Board the Check book and the pen too, to  write their own check without demanding that they be accountable to the tax payers for the funds they have already gotten.  He is also deliberately trying to pass this year's budget without the input of the three African Americans on the board, all three of which are past Chairpersons of the board.

The Commissioner are scheduled to adopt the County budget on next Thursday June 21, 2007.  If you don't want your taxes to go up unnecessarily, then you need to call, Billy Yow 382-4885, Paul Gibson 210-1049, Kaye Cashion 273-2820, John Parks 906-0657, Kirk Perkins 324-9000 and Mike Winstead 362-2055.

Well, it's official. Billy Yow said publicly last night at the County Commssioners meeting, that he will support a 3 cent tax increase if the budget did not include funding for the proposed Civil Rights Museum which is scheduled to receive $250,000.00 this year.  The 3 cent tax increase that he is willing to suport, will cost the tax payers of this County 12 million dollars. 

Billy Yow is so aganist anything that he think will benefit the African American community, that he is willing to increase taxes on the citizens of Guilford County by 12 million dollars.  How crazy is that?  He has also stated that his conditions to vote for a 3 cent tax increase is also contingent on  the board abandoning the idea of funding the plans for alternative ways of incarceration, which was included in the manager's budget for $300,000.00. Kaye Cashion and Paul Gibson have also said that they wanted to abandon this funding also. I guess it is because these plans will take away their argument for a new jail.

Billy Yow has several other conditions that I will reveal to you later next week for his support of a 3 cent tax increase which involves cutting certain staff positions and the agreement to give more money to the Sheriff department's budget. 

For the record, I have no problem with Billy Yow stating his conditions for voting for a 3 cent tax increase, which will be included in the budget this year.  The problem I have, is that he has 4 Democratic Commissioners who are going along with some of his rediculous demands.

Paul Gibson is so focused on passing a budget without the inclusion of the African Americans on the board, that he is willing to cut a deal with Billy Yow and Mike Winstead for their support.  Kaye Cashion, John Parks and Kirk Perkins have shown no leadership on this budget at all.  They are simply going along with Paul Gibson, who is being dictated to by the Sheriff. 

However, the budget is scheduled to be adopted at our next official meeting on June 21st.  There will be several behind the scene meetings taking place before then.  I will also be having meetings with the staff and even some of the commissioners to try to put together an alternative budget for their consideration, which I believe will be less than the 3 to 4 cent tax increase that is being proposed. 

Please take time to look at the proposed Manager's budget and give me your input on possible cuts. Time is of the essence.

Just a reminder about the public hearing on the County Budget which will be held on Thursday June 7, at 5:30pm in the County Commissioners meeting room.  Also, I apologize for not making any blogs lately.  I will celebrate my 50th birthday on Sunday June 10th and my wife and I have been planning for my party on this Saturday at our home. 

We have a lot of family and friends that will be there, so as you can imagine, the past two weeks of getting the house ready and making all of the final details has been a nightmare.  However, you only turn 50 once.

Next week I will update you on all of the behind the scene meetings and horse trading that has been going on over the past two weeks to adopt a budget that will certainly have a tax increase.  A sneak preview is, for the first time we will have two republicans who have said they  will vote for a 3 cent tax increase and possibly a 4 cent tax increase.  Guest who they are, Billy Yow and Mike Winstead.  Paul Gibson is calling in his chips on Billy for supporting him in getting lights for some of his friends in Pleasant Garden which was in Carolyn Coleman's district and Mike is following along because B.J. Barnes has told him to support  Paul Gibson in getting his budget passed this year without the help of the African Americans on the Board, simply because we don't support building a new jail. 

Paul was also send meeting with Kirk Perkins, Kay Cashion and John Parks at Lucky 32 on May 24th, discussing the budget.  This meeting took place immediately after our first budget meeting on that same afternoon.  They have also been meeting privately with Billy and Mike, along with some staff members all this week putting the budget together with a tax increase.

So, it looks like there will be 4 democrates and 2 republicans that will be passing a budget this year with a tax increase that I personnally think is still to high.  However, you will have your chance to speak to these Commissioners and try to get them to change their minds on Thursday night if you come out and let your voices be heard.  See you there!

The Guilford County Commissioners will start the process of meeting with various department heads to discuss their proposed budgets on Thursday, May 24 at 4:00pm.  The public is invited to attend, however you will not be able to make comments during these meetings.  The public hearing, which is designed for the public to give their imput on the budget is scheduled for June 7, at 5:30pm at the Commissioners meeting room.  Each citizen will be given 3 minutes to state your position on the budget, pro or con.

The public meetings with the various department heads are as follow:  4pm May 24th, Guilford County Schools, 4pm May 31st., Human Services and the Sheriff Department, 4pm June 7, other various agencies and departments, June 12, Nonprofit funding and drug treatment center. 

The Commissioners are scheduled to adopt the budget on June 21th.  The Manager is recommending a 6.9% tax increase.  The Commissioners will have the final say as to how much your taxes will increase.  So let your voices be heard.  If not, you could end up will a big fat tax increase on July 1, 2007.

You can find the Managers proposed budget online here:

http://www.co.guilford.nc.us/07budget/index.php