Located at 10011 Iron Bridge Road on the Courthouse green, the old courthouse sits where the first colonial courthouse was once located.
On April 24, 2013, under the leadership of Chair Dorothy Jaeckle, the BOS unanimously approved this meals tax resolution.
On May 22, 2013... the Taxpayer begins the fight to restore fiscal sanity to a Board that loosened their budget belt to consume $14 Million more of the Taxpayers' wallets and they are hungry for more. Spread the word and join the fun at 5:30PM in front of the Board of Supervisors meeting.
The adopted resolution triggers a request to order the special election on November 5, 2013 to stick it to the Taxpayer.
Unless it is defeated by the Taxpayer, the five Board of Supervisors would enact an ordinance for a new tax on your wallet. That's right a $10 meal will be $0.40 more. A $50 meal will be $2.00 more. This hurts small businesses located in Chesterfield County.
The potential bounty would then be dedicated to fund school facilities and walkie talkies, (that's right "emergency communications" including but not limited to ADDITIONAL DEBT service expenses – THIS ADDITIONAL DEBT would far exceed the maximum revenue generated by a meals tax.
The Taxpayer took a look behind the curtain and we believe we found one of the many reasons not to support this NEW TAX. The Taxpayer will just focus on this one item for now (more to come).
The County has a significant problem that they are trying to solve; but they are not being up front about it. They have a growing pension funding line item that they plan to solve once the meals tax is in place. The Administrator, we will call him "J", knows that the meals tax for the children and the schools will be an easy sell...MUCH easier than a bond referendum to solve their pension problem (just like Portsmouth did)... When the meals tax generates an extra $16M in the budget, "J"(KLMNOP) will simply supplant that school directed funding from another source to solve their pension problems.
So for the children... it is time to ask the tough questions...
1. Why? (despite numerous attempts by the Taxpayer) is there not the appropriate level of transparency in the school budget and the adminstration's budget with a modern searchable budget for citizens to analyze and look at?
2. Why? (despite numerous attempts by the Taxpayer) is the checkbook not online for daily expenditures by the school administration and the county administration?
3. What is the true cost of the proposed debt per Taxpayer over the life of the proposed bond and how do our elected officials plan to advertise this new debt?
4. What is the real position of our elected officials on the meals tax? (And no... "Let's let the voters decide"... is not a position...)
5. Why does the school board and the board of supervisors request 100% of their needs in a $300,000,000 bond referendum request without eliminating some lower priority budget items and showing why a school facility capital program is more important than those items?
6. What percentage of the bond referendum request are our elected officials removing from the request because these lower priority items were eliminated?
7. Why is the largest growing budget item pensions? Why do unfunded liabilities continue to grow unchecked? Why does the County make promisory notes that it knows it cannot keep with its employees? What structural changes be made for those who have less than 7-10 years with the county be made to reduce the Taxpayer burden and unfunded liabilities? How exactly does this issue relate to the meals tax?
8. If the county and State have balanced budgets using Federal deficit spending, does Chesterfield County really have a balanced budget?
The Taxpayer knows more about what is coming... stay tuned. (Might be related to school employees and their retirement plans... Ask "J" or Marco...)
See you on Wednesday May 22nd at 5:30PM... pitchforks in hand
Posts
CCPS School Board member Diane Smith is receiving a boat load of money and benefits as a school board member and retired principal including County paid health insurance.
ReplyDeleteIn addtion her son makes over 125,000 before benefits as a pr monkey for the CCPS.
Ony an idiot would vote for a meals tax increase for this nonsense.