Stop the Fear

Project Veritas has recently exposed CNN for using fear to attract viewers. It is a shameful technique used widely in media and politics. Your local ‘news’ paper uses it more than you may realize.

In a recent story about the Belknap County nursing home’s difficulty in finding nursing staff, it was made to sound as if this was an isolated problem for the county home. The reality is there is a wide spread problem in nursing in general. The problem is made worse by the easy availability of generous unemployment benefits.

As I know what is going on and I attended the commissioners’ meeting that spawned the article, I was not concerned. We have an excellent administrator at the Belknap County nursing home and the residents receive 5 star care.

A few days after the article appeared I received a call from a friend. She has a loved one residing at the nursing home. The story in the paper, as she read it, made it sound like the nursing home was going to be closed. I assured her that the nursing home is not closing and she could relax.

This was not a case of sloppy writing, it was carefully crafted to sow fear. This is shown in a more recent piece written about the county delegation investigation into spending irregularities.

Having attended the meeting from which this latest article arose, I found it odd that two references were made to oxygen in the nursing home. It was implied that there was insufficient funds available to have oxygen supplied to nursing home residents. It has nothing to do with the investigation and not a word about oxygen was spoken in the meeting. It seems only to be inserted to stoke fear of patients lacking proper care.

I immediately recognized this to be a manufactured ‘crisis,’ before I went to check the budget.

As of June 6, 2021, which covers the first 42% of the year, the budget for oxygen has spent 29%. From a budget of $39,000 only $11,266 has been spent. In fact, the estimate for the year end is that $9,000 will remain in the oxygen budget. Note that this is based on the very frugal delegation budget, the county commissioners had budgeted $49,800 for the year. What’s $20,000 between friends? Some might call it fraud.

More than enough in the budget for oxygen. And 1/2 million excess in nursing services!

2021 Belknap County Budget

The county board of commissioners’ budget for 2021 proposes to raise property taxes by 12%. As is always the case the commissioners have provided enough padding in the budget to allow them to spend as they desire without needing to manage a budget. They are also using $2 million from fund balance (previously paid taxes).

Let’s note here that many of the county’s senior citizens will be getting a 1.3% increase in their social security.

As we know the commissioners like to compare one budget to the next in order to downplay the actual increase they are seeking. The 2020 budget was $30,829,837 which was ~$2.25 million higher than was needed to fund county operations in 2020. In other words the taxpayers were forced to pay $2.25 million more than was necessary for county operations in 2020.

Now let’s compare the 2020 spending of ~$28,600,000 to the 2021 commissioners’ request of $31,961,320. We can see here that spending would increase by 11.8%, compare that to growth (loss) in the non-government sector. Because the commissioners use the budget-to-budget scheme they can claim the increase in spending is only 4% over 2020.

While this escalation of spending is bad enough on the surface it is actually worse. The commissioners have finally removed a taxpayer gift to Community Health Services Network, LLC. from their budget. That line in 2020 was $580,000. In the end a little less than $300,000 was given to this corporation.

As we look at bringing common sense to the county budget, we should be staying within $28.3 million (28.6 million minus $300,000) with a 2% maximum for inflation. Using such a sensible method will put spending for 2021 at ~$28,900,000. Taking this reasonable projection of the funds needed to run the county shows that the commissioners have asked for $2.9 million more than is necessary.

The executive committee has gone through the budget and removed some of the fat. They have pared down the spending to $30,256,185 which is an increase in spending over 2020 of 5.6%, well above inflation. As I have said in the past, governments can only grow faster than the general economy for a short period of time before large problems force a solution upon them.

The citizens of the county have faced many challenges in 2020 from an economy disrupted by the reactions to the virus. The county has amassed a fund balance beyond the commissioners’ upper limits. A $6,000,000 fund balance is 20% of the county’s annual budget. How many of our citizens have savings of 20% of their annual salary? Few, I will guess. The executive committee has budgeted a return of $3,000,000 to the taxpayers, giving them a bit of relief while maintaining ample funds to handle any emergencies.

This is how the administration views the budget, comparing to the previous budget.

The county administration loves to obfuscate reality by comparing budget-to-budget. We know that the 2020 budget had over 2 million dollars appropriated that were not necessary. So, in order to get a proper evaluation take the 2020 budget of $30,829,837 and subtract the excess $2,250,000 to start with a realistic budget of $28,579,837. Now you will see that the commissioners’ request is an 11.8% increase. The executive committee is allowing for an actual spending increase of 5.8% which is well above inflation.

A quick review

  • Exec Comm budget increases funding to $30,256,185 (5.69% increase)
  • Exec Comm uses $3,000,000 from fund balance to offset taxes (leaving $3,000,00 in fund balance)
  • The amount to be raised by taxes is $13,145,309 a reduction of $1,625,198 (11%)
  • They also voted to restrict transfers between departments to $1,000 without Exec Comm approval

There is one more step in the budget process, bringing it to the full county delegation. The administration will fight to have more money put back into the budget. If you want to avoid higher taxes join me to have your voice heard.

Deliberation

photo by Cliff Newton
LDS letter

When one comes under attack by certain segments of the population, we sometimes respond by lumping together those people and give them a rather broad label. This is a common practice and it is unfortunate. I try to avoid such errors.

I know there are many rational thinking people, with whom I disagree, that are Democrats. Often they get tarred with the broad stroke of a brush wielded by some in the Republican party. With this in mind, I must reply to those who have a habit of responding to events without thought or the application of reason.

I stand proudly with the members of the House who voted against suspending rules on January 6th. As Representative Hough explained, we were in a parking lot in Durham in session and separated from news of the events happening in Washington at the time. Our legislature is a deliberative body, we are to think about our actions as they have an effect upon not just ourselves but also our constituents. When this vote was called, we lacked information about the events that were occurring and what would be included in the Resolution which would follow. When presented with such a vote, with insufficient information, I consider it to be irresponsible to vote in the affirmative.

I do not want this to be taken as a criticism of those who supported the motion; they may have had more information than I. This situation brings into focus the difficulties associated with remote meetings; the more closely a group meets, the better information flows through the body.

In the end the Resolution was adopted. Rep. Terry has pointed to a somewhat embarrassing problem with the Resolution. It was put together with such haste that it inadvertently condemns “all… action in Washington, D.C.” Surely we did not intent that to be included in our Resolution. When one assembles a sentence that will be recorded in history, deliberation will assure that “all violence and action in Washington, D.C.” can not be misconstrued.

Rather than shaming Representatives Comtois, Sylvia, Ploszaj, Bean, Aldrich, Silber, and Hough, those who react with outrage should pause before they fly off the handle, and look for a bit of perspective which might explain why we voted as we did. The voters of their districts are not as irrational as you might think.