The Daily Commercial just reported that County staff is proposing raising property millage rates by 18% or more for many reasons. I was at the Board meetings and saw the presentations.
In this article, one reason for tax increase request is because the staff and the elected Board failed to have a routine process to replace $8-million in depreciating equipment and/or budget to maintain it on a yearly basis.
"County Manager David Heath said it would cost an estimated $8 million to replace all the vehicles, but it is not possible to replace them all at once."
This up and down equipment replacement budget policy has to stop.
Here is the article, followed by the comment we posted:
http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/article_f0c15e97-547a-5ef0-8779-b2efc9d68eeb.html
Our Comment:
How can professional government managers propose a budget to County Board
members and leave out the need to replace depreciating vehicles?
"there is no funding allocated in that (2015) budget to replace the vehicles."
This situation of delayed capital replacement and deferred maintenance
continues to indicate a lack of management skills on the part of both staff
and elected County officials. This practice of putting off equipment and
maintenance makes operations less efficient and now builds up a huge "need"
that is used to justify tax increases. If Jimmy Conner and the rest of the
Board had required REALISTIC, minimum equipment replacement and maintenance
budgets in prior years, this would not be a problem. The Board has been
using reserves to spend on "special projects" in the past, and now is really
short of funds since reserves have run out.
They should not be allowed to cover up their lack of rational equipment
management policies by increasing taxes. And, if they increase taxes to
pay for the deferred expenses, that means the base will be much higher to
spend on more political programs once the equipment is replaced. The
taxpayers need to demand professional management of assets like a
corporation would.
They are running the County like a renter uses a house... deferring
maintenance expenses until the owner (taxpayer) has to spend unplanned
dollars to make up for the deterioration. There should be professional and
county policies that establish appropriate minimum level equipment
replacement and maintenance policies. By not reflecting the deferred
equipment conditions in annual budgets, they are hiding growing liabilities.
Until then, the public has a right to consider government managers AND
elected officials less qualified than business managers.
vj
Lake County Elected Commissioners officials must learn not to allow deferral
of capital replacement and maintenance budgets or they are condoning waste
of taxpayer assets.
