From the Harford Campaign for Liberty:
Who? YOU, the Taxpayer – an Owner of Harford County
What? YOUR Harford County Budget – That’s right!
It begins with a “B” and ends with a “T” and that stands for “Taxes!”
Why?
Because,
— The County Budget pays for all services and functions — good and bad
–YOUR taxes and the level of services are directly affected by the Budget
–Next year’s revenues are not likely to increase. That means there’s no money coming in to cover any additional expenditure(s).
–Next year’s expenditures could be at least $30 MILLION more, if the Board of Education and Harford Community College budgets are passed
–YOUR property taxes could increase significantly to pay for this
–If you fail to speak up now, YOU could suffer serious, economic consequences!
Where?
VOICE YOUR OPINION:
County Executive’s Blog
http://www.harfordcountymd.gov/Executive
Or call at 410.638.3350
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!
County Council Meeting – Next Tuesday, March 8, 2011, 7:30 pm, AA Roberty Building, 102 S. Hickory Ave Bel Air (Park in garage.)
When?
TODAY!
Email the County Executive and ask him to post a blog because you would like to establish dialog on the 2012 budget.
CountyExecutive@harfordcountymd.gov
Next Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Attend this County Council meeting
How?
Simply e-mail or call the County Executive. Tell him your worries about the economy. Ask him to post this topic on his blog for open discussion.
Attend the County Council meeting and voice your concerns and/or support those people who will be sharing your uneasiness
Download the “2011 Budget in Brief” to see how your money is spent. http://www.harfordcountymd.gov/Budget/Download/1447.pdf
WAKE UP! STAND UP! SPEAK UP!
Or, WE WILL ALL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!
Understand we are all in this boat together.
We could all sink under the weight of additional property taxes.
E-mail this to your neighbors!
Print it out and personally give it to them!
Stay tuned in for next week’s important e-mail update on this issue!
Let us know what the County Executive says about the budget!
I urge everyone to get involved. Taxpayers cannot endure more taxes. People are hurting and the County Government has to cut, cut, cut. There are plenty of ways and ideas are out there. An efficient run government is long overdue. We need to go back to pay as you go and mean it. Let’s all get together. It’s your money, it’s time to stop the waste. Join us!
I’m curious to know what you would cut. Please be as specific as possible.
Everything by 10% to start.
One of the first things that I would cut from the budget is the number of duplicate machines/tools, equipment w/n the systems. The parks and rec facilities and the schools should be using the same equipment, not purchasing individual equipment for each separate school. I am talking about landscaping, grass cutting, cleaning/maintenance and the like.
A second possibility, the school buses are only used for 10 years. Then they are brought to junk yards. Why can’t they be maintained and used for other purposes w/n the system instead of having to be replaced? If they have to be replaced with new buses, why not auction the used buses or use them for storage or for parts.
School buses that transport kids by law may only be 10 years. Additionally the county owns very few buses. They contract with independent contractors who own and maintain them.
tobe-it takes only a few minutes to research some of this stuff. The county contracts private companies to supply buses and service. These buses are now owned or operated by hcps or the county.
Please feel free to scare the public…Has the executive stated that he is going to raise taxes? no….be aware, be vigilant, but don’t put the cart before the horse…
The money the county collects is gotten from the property taxes and fees. Where will the county budget get the money for the budget if the taxpayers homes, w/n Harford county, are 30% less assessed value than last year? Ms. Ryder is correct- cuts and buy as you go must be enforced to allow home owners and business owners to stay here in this county.
Wow these tea party people AND Joan Ryder have NO clue how a responsible society operates.
If you are an example of how a ‘responsible society’ is run, I encourage you to apply for the next boat outta here. Your comment is both non-helpful and less polite than needed.
And why do we need cuts.
Maybe if people stopped buying $6 Starbucks, $100 cell phone bills for their 5th Grader, $200 tv/Internet bills U would feel more sympathetic.
Otherwise we don’t need cuts.
@YOU R A FOOL writes “tea party people AND Joan Ryder have NO clue how a responsible society operates.”
Well FOOL are you saying Harford County and Maryland are a responsible functioning society? I don’t think so.
@YOU R A FOOL writes “And why do we need cuts. Maybe if people stopped buying $6 Starbucks, $100 cell phone bills for their 5th Grader, $200 tv/Internet bills U would feel more sympathetic. Otherwise we don’t need cuts.”
You are a complete FOOL to say people don’t have a right to do what they want with their money and to conflate discretionary personal spending with tax burdens is the height of stupidity.
Porter
One suggestion I have as well as others is to stop giving corporations, etc. tax breaks. These companies will come to Harford County regardless of whether they get a break or not. But in the past Harford County has made deals where they are tax exempt and we get no money out of them. This has to stop.
Joan-I agree with that statement completely. Special taxing districts and enterprise zones just grease the pockets of political contributors and bring no added value to the county…the county’s tax burden must be shared by all.
It’s obvious that the tea party is so clueless. They think that they can save money on old buses AND the county does not even own them.
Clueless……..
@porter yes Maryland is a responsible part of society. If you don’t think so why are you still here.
And yes people can spend what they want. But then don’t complain they can barely afford to live…..
Pay your taxes and shut the F up!
@YOU R A FOOL says – “Pay your taxes and shut the F up!”
Did I upset you so much that you’ve lost your composure? I’m sorry if your arguments are so weak that they fail to convince anyone.
Sound the alarm! Be afraid! But don’t offer any possible solutions… this is why the Tea Party is failing.
I guess you missed the last election and the results of it. The tea party was involved in many of the races, good candidates or not.
It is interesting how threatened you libs are by a group of taxpayers demanding responsible spending and lower taxes. You would think every citizen would want our money spent wisely instead of politicans borrowing from our children, and running a country on the verge of bankruptcy.
I believe that there have been many solutions presented, but you fail to see them as such since you don’t agree with the methods used. See Wisconsin and Jersey.
Who has failed us are the politicians who continue to borrow against our future, not the citizens moved to act before disaster.
Eliminate Duplication such as:
Equipment maintenance Functions
Human Resource functions
Purchasing Departments
Treasury Departments
Planning Departments
All of these are duplicated in the County and School System. Why is that?
I agree with Joan Ryder, we should eliminate dupicative services and functions in the County. In addition, I would recommend that Harford County undertake a study to determine which functions could be privatized. Those that are purely government should remain within government. Those that could be performed by private industry, and which will cost less when performed by private industry, should be privatized.
HCG and HCPS are two distinct and separate agencies authorized by the State of Maryland. HR depts at both are specialized in different areas. That would be the same as saying your foot doctor can also be your eye doctor. Or why can’t an appraiser also be a realtor and a loan officer. Obviously, Joan while you may be an expert in your field, I think you should leave up to the experts to design and determine how to best organize and run a county govt. As for Mr. Mallamo, he is just way out there.
Frankly Speaking,
Your comment that the HR depts. of HCPS and HCG need to be separate due to specific functions seems only 1/2 accurate. Many of the same basic jobs are done for both govt. and the HCPS, ie. secretarial, clerical, motor pool, inside janitorial, custodial, and landscaping, jobs are not site specific, nor are the food services jobs. Many of the county jobs that involve kids, ie. parks and rec, social services and I am sure there are others, have similar defined skills. These could be combined.
The comment that you make about the gov’t jobs not taking over private industry jobs…where does it say in the Constitution that govt has to provide Parks and Rec centers? Where does it state the govt. has to provide h20/sewer services? The lines to the sewer plant are put in by private contractors. Why can’t private contractors control the h2/0 and sewer plants? If the govt. has to own the plants, why can’t the plants be contractor run? The costs saved would be from labor cost reductions and efficiency efforts. Water and sewer is already self-financed with its own enterprise fund and it isn’t supposed to get money from the general fund.
I have commented prior that water and sewer could be privatized and so could some other functions….not against it. but the county can’t combine intra-agencies because they are separate state entities. This would require state law changes, good luck seeing that happen. The same goes for IT services with security issues, privacy issues and different computer systems that are not compatible unless the county is willing to spend massive amounts of money to bring all software, servers and computers on line under the same system. Also some of the changes being proposed by others here are at best full of assumptions that private enterprise would provide the service at a lower price. Remember, county employees provide many functions and are a ready made workforce in case of emergencies such as natural disaster, human tragedy and national emergencies. Many have been cross-trained for such events and can be a critical component in dealing with such issues. If you look at my post on March 7 here, you’ll see that I have thought about some of the consolidation options for the county. Also, private entreprise does not have the knowledge and know how to complete many tasks involved as they require provision of services on demand and the tax payer is not willing to pay more fees to get something that they already receive by tax dollars.
All county functions are purely in the public domain. We can privatize the water dept. That’s about it. We can consolidate some depts but most of them do specific functions not related to other depts. We can get rid of the agriculture office and combine it with economic development and community services can be assimilated with govt relations, but in the end the savings would be minimal and the required retraining and certification of staff would make eliminate any savings. Consolidation of county offices in one building would be ideal, but the cost of building a new place to house all depts would prohivitive right now, but I be Joan Ryder would love to get a commission on selling the county land or a building in the county.
About your private industry taking over gov. jobs with private industry. Well I work in industry for 20 yrs and private industry sure does not mind charging an arm and a leg for contracted jobs while blue collar employee of gov. and I mean blue collar employees that run gov. operation day in and day out are cheaper than private industry every one over looks the people just making a living, working to keep harford county running day to day and just looking at the over paid Politians and not workers.
One other point to ponder,
why does the county administration building sit empty instead of being repaired? The building is vacant and it does not produce any property taxes. The inspectors reports were not conclusive, but the rumor is that Mr.Craig wants a new admin. building built. How is that logical or cost effective? What’s going on with the building?
Another point to think on, if the need for the new EMT center, additions and expansions are critical for the county’s financial stability, why doesn’t private industry provide the services?
you mean the county council building? I guess they are trying to figure out what it would take to fix it and determine how to go about doing so.
You will have companies that will pay you cash for sending brand new products such as cheez-its and shaving cream to your house for you to try out.