At least this way, if things go South anymore, he can point the fingers at the Legislature and mostly the Delegates. Good Obamalite politics; p*** poor Governance for a State about on its back at the State Level. Still need to see the true list of Tax/ Fee/ Surcharges and you name it increases before I would even suggest anyone start cheering if one does NOT work for the Government in one capacity or another? For example, why did the State Board of Education get $3.9 Million back? $808. dollar pay raise for the Teachers maybe?
Letter in the Daily Blat went after term limits at the National Level and made a big to do on how they are the ones who put us into some very tough positions and have for decades. TRUE as far as Mr. Powell went. BUT, he than folded when it should have devolved down to the State, County and the Cities. Blat will go for National in a heartbeat, but cannot seem to find the problems in the State and down. Most especially Vienna and their bubba's?
We have people who have been in State Government (and City), for over 30 years and should have been retired at least 15 years ago. At the County level, I don't know how long Mr. Couch has been in office, but his bias towards the Fire Board and its members is commendable until he is part and parcel of a sweetheart deal on the paying back of the $17K they had each agreed to repay. Instead he talks about "gee whiz kids", we can't expect them to do what they agreed too? After all, they screwed the Fire Fee (Tax) up so bad for so long because for example their arrogance to exclude people who could and I suspect would have helped them if given a chance? As far as I am concerned, it was a quid pro quo that probably will play out when Mr. Couch is up for re-election next year?
I paid my Fire Tax on Nov., 21 2016, as soon as the bill arrived at my mail box. The Fee (Tax) went into effect 1 July 2016 so Mr. Couch's comments on the Board had to wait months and months to get their money is again more the fault of break wind, stumble and fall they practiced for some months than any delay by the people being billed. With out going back and digging into the documents, I believe the due date was shoved back to January of 2017 because of all the problems with implementation.
So because of the screw ups over and over by the Fire Board, the County Commission gives them an $85K reward for incompetence? Any prudent person could see the disaster unfolding and when the forms dropped with a wrong "send to" address and the apparent issues with the mis-billing, it became a down hill exercise. And apparently, there are still issues with people paying because of amount disputes or the fact it was forced on them because of the State Law that insured people, no matter the County would not be able to get a vote on the Fee (Tax).
The really disgusting part was having Mr. Scholl doing his Mr. Rapp impersonation on how the Department was dealing with the loss of funds. What a load of absolute BULL. The VFD got over $630K in support last year from the City and State/ County. Now that $100K from where ever was reduced to about $80K under the latest expectation from the County on the Fire Fee (Tax). So we are talking at the very worst if I may be conservative, let us say $40K less from where ever?
As I have noted over and over, getting Budget numbers from the City for a Current Year or the next year is almost impossible. Mr. Rapp and crew are adamant that in their case, the "Truth Shall Set You Free" for damn sure does not apply to the City. Now in the 2016-2017 Budget, the VFD was allocated allegedly $539K from the City. But as the Budget began to surface, it got pushed up to about $639K and of course the $100K from the City Fire Fee (Tax) that seemed to go on and on even after the County one went into effect finally got stopped and even a payback for the overcharges when it was so widely noted about it. It was posted here as far back as last October that the City was overcharging and that finally sank in to the quagmire that is our than City Council mindset? Suspect overpayment refunds came out of General Fund and not VFD?
So what is the true "STARTING" number for the VFD this year? New Budget goes into effect in 10 days and it is all STILL hidden. Where is the True Budget for 2016- 2017 that is now ending? At least up through 22 June? Hide and evade is great if you are a downed Pilot or a Ranger in the woods. But in a City Government? 'nuff said'.