RESPONSE TO THE COUNTY MANAGER'S COMMENTS ON 18 MAY BY KIM RINGEISEN (SEE ALSO HIS FACEBOOK PAGE)
This was my response to the 18 May Facebook post from the Albemarle Observer on the meeting and the mangers comments:
I couldn't stay for the entire meeting because I was
called away. According to the Albemarle Observer, the County Manager responded
to citizens' input on the high school and the tax increase.
On the school, Howard said the plan was fulfilled. But the plan presented
in April 2021 was a $50 million project with "no impact on
the current tax rate." What got built is $85 million. The Board raised
the ceiling in September 2023 to require about $10 million more in borrowing,
and the next year's budget raised our property tax by three cents to help cover
it.
The high school is a leading factor in our taxes today,
not a finished plan.
On the jail: Howard said it
"got overlooked." But the
jail has been on the County Manager's own desk since
October 2018. A 2019 Request for Qualifications, a 2020 feasibility
study, a $13.4 million Chowan-only cost estimate presented to the Board in
October 2020, and a February 2024 Moseley Architects detention center agenda
item placed by Howard himself. It wasn't overlooked. It was being worked on the
whole time.
Why? The retired debt funds that were supposed to pay for the original $50
million school project have been exhausted by the $85 million project as-built.
We don't have room to absorb the jail, salary study, DSS,
or benefits, whether or not those obligations were anticipated, which is why
there is another tax increase.
I will schedule time with the manager, as he offered, to review this more
directly.