The three most important issues facing the next county commissioners:
1. Economy - Taxes, Economic Development, School Spending.
2. Providing Adequate Services. Implement APFO (Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance) to coordinate growth, insure services are provided as we grow and have those that profit from the growth pay for it.
3. Preserving Cecil County’s unique identity as we grow (growth directed to designated areas, tourism, support agriculture industry)
How I would address these issues:
In order to effectively address our economy, we’ll have to stop doing business as usual in the County and implement fiscal responsibility and accountable government. Too many big businesses control our local politicians or the elected officials are representing their own vested interests (campaign finance reports or just observe their votes). Televising our commissioner meetings would be effective in revealing these conflicts and getting more citizens to hold their public officials accountable. Conflicts of interest shouldn’t be tolerated!
For 14 years in a row we saw double-digit tax increases. While the tax yield remained the same as last year’s, this is an election year and I also credit the involvement of many new tax payers in the budget hearings. When reviewing our county’s spending, we shouldn’t start at maintenance of effort but at zero and then justify each expense and look for more efficient ways to spend tax payer dollars.
A lot of Cecil County tax payers are struggling today and with the unemployment rate in Cecil County higher than most areas (9.4%) along with plummeting property values which will result in a significant decrease in tax revenue next year, we need to clean up our act and start implementing policies that will increase our tax base. Cutting taxes is always a good place to start as well as doing what we can to limit the cost of government and help alleviate government regulations on businesses. Small businesses accounted for 77% of all new job creation (across the nation) for the last 20 years, but in the current economic environment forecasted with hire tax rates and increased government regulations (such as mandatory health care coverage), small businesses need all the support they can get.
We should continue to invest in tourism which yields a return of $12 to $40 for every dollar invested. Our unique identity is closely identified with our rural character and we should protect our parks and increase the amount of access points on our 220 miles of coast line (currently only 13). We need to encourage value added farming and ag preservation which keeps our farm lands in operation while residential is a draw on the tax base. Another positive impact with tourism and ag preservation is that it contributes to our quality of life which also has a positive effect on attracting quality high tech companies with employees that want to live in Cecil County.
While the privatization of most of our treatment plants by Artesian could be a positive direction for the county, what guarantees do we have they will supply the much desired pipeline for the Route 40 Corridor. None at this point. They are a “for profit” company and make most of their money servicing residential. We have to be aggressive in diverting growth to the designated areas and do what we can as a county to make sure the infrastructure is implemented on the Rt. 40 corridor to attract high tech businesses.
Hollywood Casinos? Repeatedly we have seen evidence that the gambling industry has a negative impact to a local economy because they bring social costs and take potential revenue from local businesses. I was surprised to hear that less than 1/3 of those first hired at the Casinos were Cecil County Residents. (Casino Hiring Harford Folks, Aegis 8/6/10) Didn’t the Commissioners make it a requirement that a certain percentage of those hired have to be from Cecil County? If not, they certainly should have. Wasn’t that one of the major arguments for placing the casino in Cecil County - more jobs. Penn National even requested that the infrastructure they were responsible for would be paid for by either Perryville or the County. The town said no but two of our commissioners actually voted to accommodate Penn National’s request to pay for the infrastructure costs ($6.5 million).
There is certainly room for improvement with Cecil County Public Schools. Each year they request more funding for our schools but the administration is not supporting policy that is in the best interest of our teachers and students. It was interesting that a Superintendent of Cecil County Schools sent in testimony supporting Special Taxing District legislation before the General Assembly that didn‘t provide funding for the schools. The school board acknowledged they didn’t tell the Superintendent to submit this testimony but nothing was done to clarify that he wasn’t representing the School Board. Why would the Superintendent support legislation that would encourage residential growth without school funding? I believe it’s the same reason they justify all of those relocatables, they are more concerned with the federal and state dollars each student brings than with quality education from adequate facilities. With the Cecil County Public Schools promoting this type of growth, the taxpayers are the ones to pick up the cost. The commissioners can intervene and implement an APFO (Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance) to control growth in areas that are overcapacity.
Implementing an APFO would allow us to grow in a planned and coordinated manner. For too long we have missed opportunities because we are reactive instead of proactive to growth. Reacting to growth yields sprawl, congested roads, lack of services, and over capacity schools. Thankfully we are not in a residential growth boon right now but when the economy turns around, Cecil County has the potential to see an unprecedented amount of growth which could quickly overwhelm our schools, roads and emergency services. If this happens, taxes will skyrocket because of the new demand for services. However, an APFO could limit growth in areas that didn’t have the infrastructure to accommodate it and allow for developers to pay into a fund to provide the infrastructure as we grow. Therefore, the growth is paid for by those profiting from it and not on the backs of Cecil County tax payers.
