The Gloucester County public school system, county
administration, the School Board and the Board of Supervisors are pushing for a
new 1% retail sales and use tax. The final decision about this tax will be made
when the citizens of Gloucester vote on November 3rd. Many Gloucester
citizens have been led to believe this tax is needed to prevent future real estate
tax increases related to renovating and or constructing new Gloucester public school
buildings. The same real estate tax insinuation was also used when the powers in
control entered the landfill contract with Waste Management and when the Commonwealth
started the lottery. They are also expecting to get our consent to borrow nearly
$6 Million on September 1st. Remember, Silence is Consent.
Before deciding whether to consent to more borrowing or voting
for or against the new tax, everyone should ask themselves; are those people
really being responsible with the money they already get from us? It is my hope
that I can open more citizens’ eyes to some, not all, of what they use our tax
dollars for.
As you know, we have two public libraries. Some years back
the powers in control decided to abandon our two libraries and began to rent spaces
for them. It now costs us over $270,000 per year in rent payments alone. This
has been going on for more than 20 years. That $5 million could have gone a
long way towards building two libraries on land the County/School system
already own.
Several years ago, we began renting our Public Health
Department space after the powers in control vacated a building we already
owned. Now we are paying over $86,000 per year in rent alone. The state
reimburses us for that expenditure, making it appear like a good deal on the
surface. But remember, federal money, state money, County money, it’s all the
People’s tax money; right? What most people don’t realize is, when we
previously owned our own space, the state was renting it from us, not from the
Main Street Preservation Trust through us. Owning our own space again would
generate enough long term revenue to maintain the space and offset some of the
45% Health Department cost share the County pays to the state or offset the
cost of the department’s phone service; which annually are more than $450,000
and more than $10,000 respectively.
Several years ago, the powers in control of our County and
Schools began to focus on building a new transportation facility for our School
System. (Well, if the truth be known, they were factually focusing on vacating
the bus garage and old Page properties to satisfy an adjacent landowner, but
that is another story.) When an analysis was done of the County’s and the
School’s existing transportation facilities, the County’s repair garage that was
located at the intersection of Providence Road and Route 17, was finally
publicly exposed to be in extremely poor and non-OSHA compliant condition.
Instead of consolidating our County and School System transportation and repair
facilities by renovating and expanding the existing bus facilities, the powers
in control have decided to build a new School System transportation facility
next to the new Page Middle School and the County now rents garage space from
Bay Transit.
We currently pay for two finance directors: one in the School
System and one in County administration. Their combined base salaries alone cost us over $235,000 in 2020.(See SlideShare below) The school system does not write checks or pay bills and
all our tax money flows through the County finance office and the Treasurer’s
office. Wouldn’t it be more economical if the School System and the County
combined financial services at the County level instead of paying for two
directors? The same type of consolidation could occur with information technology,
facilities maintenance, grounds maintenance and transportation. Consolidation of County and School System
services would save well over a million tax dollars annually.
To some, Animal Control is a wonderful department, to others
it is an overreaching arm of our local government. No matter what side you are
on, I hope we can all agree that we do not need Animal Control employees
patrolling our roads and streets looking for infractions or unreported loose
animals. It should be a reactionary department, not a policing agency. We
certainly do not need an Animal Control employee driving a taxpayer vehicle to Gloucester
Point Beach twice a day to walk out on the pier far enough to view the people
laying out and then driving around the swimming pool at the
Gloucester Point Yacht Haven on his way back to Route 17. This has been going
on for at least four years that I have witnessed. Wouldn’t we save tax dollars
if the County Administrator reined in such wasteful behaviors?
We currently have a County department called “Community
Engagement and Public Information”. (It was previously titled “Community
Education”). This department’s budget is currently $575,591; $530,381 of that
is nothing but salaries and benefits. This department performs functions
normally performed by the School System, County administration, social services
and I.T. They produce the Beehive printed newsletter and the Gloucester County
Town Crier online newsletter. This department also acts as the Freedom of
Information Act facilitator. Seven employees from this department facilitate
community use of seven of our nine school facilities. The department also facilitates
connecting the community with various nonprofit and nongovernmental
organizations. Close to a half million dollars could be saved annually if this
department were dismantled and the functions they perform returned to where
they belong; the School System, County administration, social services and I.T.
As for a Freedom of Information Act facilitator, there is no state or other
code requiring such. Department heads and County administration could receive
and respond to such requests.
Between 2018 and 2020, the budgets for the following County
departments increased by the amounts shown. (See SlideShare below)
County Administration, $210,000.
Human Resources, $213,000.
Real Estate Assessment, $79,000.
Financial Services, $185,000.
Planning and Zoning, $128,000
Community Engagement, $41,000.
Engineering, $96,000.
Building Inspections, $109,000
From 2017 to 2021 the Gloucester Schools Superintendent’s
salary increased by nearly $55,000. (See link below to 2017 news article referencing
the Super’s pay and the SlideShare below)
There were other, less significant increases and a few
decreases. The most significant decreases are as follows.
Geographic Information System (GIS), $18,000.
Animal Control, $8,000
Economic Development, $75,000
Information Technology (I.T.), $75,000
As we see, our local government keeps getting bigger and
bigger and costing more and more of our hard-earned dollars. Now the powers in
control want us to a submit to paying for a $6 Million loan and another 1%
increase in our local retail sales and use tax: all for our School System. We
must not forget, former Governor Terry McAuliffe made Gloucester part of the
future Historic Circle (Currently known as the Historic Triangle). Once that
transformation is complete, Gloucester will be added to the Tommy Tax
localities. That will be at least another 1% tax added to our local retail
sales and use tax. When will it stop?
Not until we say enough is enough.
They are telling us part of the $6 Million loan is to build a
new bus loop at Abingdon Elementary School. What they are not telling us is the
contract for the bus loop was awarded back in February for $541,599.08 and is
almost finished. (See SlideShare below.) In the loan information they are
saying it will cost $790,000. (See SlideShare below) Why are they borrowing
money for something that is nearly finished and why are they saying it will
cost more than the contract price? At-Large Supervisor Ashley Chriscoe had this
to say:
“The Achilles bus loop was started with the intent we would Need
to do this borrowing to pay for it.”
Well, §15.2-1238 of the Code of Virginia states:
Except in emergency, no order for delivery on a contract or
open market order for supplies or contractual services for any county
department or agency shall be awarded until the chief financial officer has
certified that the unencumbered balance in the appropriation concerned, in
excess of all unpaid obligations, is sufficient to defray the cost of such
order.
If they knew they were going to have to borrow money to pay
for it, how could they award the contract seven months before having a Public
Hearing to get our consent to borrow the money? Something stinks here and may
very well be the reason our County Chief Financial Officer abruptly resigned. The
Public Hearing is scheduled for September 1st. Comments can be
submitted at the following link and will be read into the record during the Public
Comment part of the hearing. ClickHere to submit your comments.
On November 28, 2016, I and less than 70 people attended an
open house and viewed a film at Gloucester High School. It was our School
System’s kickoff of their promotion to renovate GHS or build a new one. It was
also the unveiling of a new education platform that is being implemented in our
and many other school systems where the communities gave consent by silence. A
platform where communism indoctrination is portrayed as a positive education experience.
Where everyone gets a participation trophy and other collectivism traits are instilled.
Page Middle School was designed to facilitate the platform and so are many of
the construction related changes planned for GHS. A lot of the money they are
asking for is to fund the ongoing transformation of our public schools and to
fulfill the desires of a handful of greedy people who want the old Page and bus
garage properties vacated.
Do we really want to give our School System a blank check for
$100 Million in construction money from a new tax, on top of the $6 Million
they want us to consent to borrowing on September 1st? The time to voice your opinion on the loan is
during the Board of Supervisors’ Public Hearing on September 1st and
the new tax will be decided at the ballot box on November 3rd. Most
of all remember, Silence Is Consent. Please don’t be silent……………….
Written By: Kenny Hogge, Sr., Gloucester
Point, Va.
Link to article about School Superintendent pay:
https://www.dailypress.com/news/isle-of-wight/dp-nws-iw-superintendent-thornton-requesting-raise-20170516-story.html
Link to Online Public Hearing Comment Form:
https://www.gloucesterva.info/FormCenter/Virtual-Meetings-27/Virtual-Meetings-Citizen-Comment-Submiss-94
Link to Gloucester's Adopted 2020 Budget:
https://www.gloucesterva.info/DocumentCenter/View/7551/FY20-Approved-Budget-Book-Final-for-Posting-and-Printing-secured?bidId=
Link to Gloucester County Board of Supervisors' contact information:
https://www.gloucesterva.info/1091/Board-of-Supervisors
Link to Gloucester County School Board's contact information:
https://gets.gc.k12.va.us/school-board