Rainy Day Fund raids worry Haywood man

Editor:

I congratulate the Madison County Board of Supervisors for holding taxes essentially at last year’s levels. That was both wise and much-needed, as tough economic times bear down.

But I have some bad news too. There will likely be little or no increase in Social Security benefits in the future years — because the core inflation rate is very low and that is what the federal government bases SS payment increases on. Many of Madison’s seniors who depend on Social Security will find it harder to cover rising fuel costs, healthcare and other expenses — including local taxes.

Our nation’s dismal economic situation may (or may not) be “bottoming out” — but “bottoming out” doesn’t necessarily mean “moving back up.” My sense is that we will be in this “trough” for years. That, too, will stress seniors and most families in Madison.

Unemployment and under-employment, already a significant problem for some, is likely to increase and will push a certain number of Madison families currently “getting by” into serious trouble.

Given all this, seniors and families will continue to have to cut costs to make ends meet — very often well past anything that could be called comfortable.
Government needs to do the same sort of cutting — and the supervisors have made a good start. But it is disheartening to read that the supervisors are setting the stage to raid the “rainy day” fund. Doing so is a back-door way of not keeping to our current, supposedly-no-increase budget. Using the fund guarantees that Madison’s hard-pressed taxpayers will be forced to rebuild that fund in the near future — which means higher taxes on the way.
There really is only one on-going answer — to view the current budget as the absolute maximum that will be spent. And to start looking long and hard at how to further cut next year’s budget.

We should all ask each current supervisor (and every supervisor candidate) to make a public pledge about where he stands on the next budget and beyond. Will he promise to lower taxes further in these tough times? Or will he force us to pay more?

The need to protect Madisonians from ever-rising taxes will be the issue in the next election. It’s important to ask the folks who set our taxes to tell us where they stand so we can vote with that in mind.

George Beker
Haywood