Sometimes it is very difficult to find out if you are getting your money’s worth when you shop for groceries these days.
For example, if you try to compare the cost of a ounce of ketchup in the big bottle as opposed to an ounce of ketchup in a smaller bottle, one tag will give the cost in ounces, and one tag will give you the cost per liter, while the mid-size bottle with have the cost per pound. This also holds true for rice. The small box will have the cost per gram, and the large box with have the cost per ounce. It is just another way to confuse the buyer and make it more difficult to find out if we are getting our’s money’s worth and a fair share.
The same thing is going on in the way the city handles our money. The city has made it almost impossible for us, the buyer, the city taxpayer, to determine what is our fair share. What is certain is that we are not getting our money’s worth when we comparison shop with the county taxpayer.
Take the recreation budget for example. The city taxpayer pays for recreation in their city property tax. Then the city taxpayer pays again for recreation when he or she pays county tax. And now we are told that a good portion of our sanitation fee each and every month goes to the general fund which, in part, pays the debt for recreation.
The city has a separate budget for the Aquatics Center housed at the Aycock Recreation Center. Again, the city taxpayer pays city taxes that go to this operation. Then they pay county taxes that go to this operation. Once more, part of the sanitation fee they pay monthly goes into the general fund to pay for part of this operation.
The same is true for 911. First, the tax on our cell phones and land lines goes to 911. Then our city taxes go to 911, our county taxes go to 911, and our federal taxes go to grants for 911…and part of our sanitation bill each month goes into the pot from which the money is drawn.
Next comes the library budget. The city taxpayer pays their city taxes, and a part goes to the library. Then we pay our county taxes, and a part goes to the library. Then we pay our sanitation bill each month, and a part of that fee goes to the general fund which they can use again to give to the library.
If you put all these tags on the shelf for comparison shopping, just how much is the city taxpayer really forking over for these “joint ventures” as compared to the county taxpayer who shares equally in the services? We deserve to know the dollars and cents, because this way of doing business makes no sense.
When I asked to see the library budget at the county, they told me that they did not have it. They only pass the money through to the library. They have no control over how the library spends it. So, when the library gave the Embassy Foundation $52,000 (listed as a contribution on the tax return for Embassy Square Foundation) was this our tax money being paid to the Embassy? Where did this $52,000 “contribution” originate and why? I thought that the Embassy Foundation was giving to the library and not the other way around.
The library comes under the auspices of the county. If you look in the phone book, the H. Leslie Perry Memorial Library is listed under Vance County. So, the county ought to be safeguarding how the library spends our money. Without county oversight, the Library Board could choose to put their employees on a higher pay scale and could choose to give them far more vacation and holiday time than other county employees. They also could choose to spend money on the upkeep of McGregor Hall which the library does not use. Or, they could choose to cut back on purchasing books in order to do repairs on a building they do not own.
I am not saying this is happening, but all of these things could happen if the county government does not get the monthly budget and expenditures from the library. When we pass our city tax dollars and our county tax dollars and part of our sanitation charges through to the library, this would be the least the county should be doing both as due dilligence and as a fail safe measure.
Joint ventures with the county must end. Only then will we really be able to compare the costs per citizen in this county.