Northampton County Council Candidates Condemn Tax Hike

Five Northampton County Council candidates are unhappy with John Stoffa's 9.3% proposed tax hike next year. By clicking on their names, you can see their responses for yourself. At the end of this post, I provide an analysis of their answers. If you're only interested in what the candidates said, you can skip that part.

Question: Private sector employment is obviously down tremendously in terms of raw numbers. The private sector work week is now down to about 33 hours, squeezing everybody all the more. ... Government salaries since 2000 have increased an average of almost 60%. Private sector salaries have only increased about 30%. Obviously, the public sector is really accelerating rapidly ahead of the private sector on a lot of these issues. Council has been handed a budget proposal with a 9.2% county tax increase. Tell me where you stand on the tax increase and the discrepancy between the public and private salary advancement.

Tom Dietrich: "I really do not like the fact that, once again, it's been presented and the attitude is it's going forward. We have elected officials. Some of them are going to stand strong; many are not. And we're basically just going to vote for a tax increase.

"If elected, I will just not pander to special interests, special projects, little pet projects that go on. The budgets have been wasted in the past years, half a million dollars on curtains, $600 thousand on redecorating a room that they meet twice a month in. This is ridiculous.

"I think we need to be realistic. We need to take the approach that private industry has. Trim the fat. I think this could be done at the government level. We do have some fat cats in government that have been in charge of making decisions on wages as well as making decisions on their own wages. We see it in council."

Barbara Thierry: "I spent over 20 years in the private sector. My husband and I owned two small businesses. We started our two small businesses with very little cash and retired pretty comfortably. So we basically lived the American dream.

"I believe in the private sector. I think the council should look for more ways to use people from the private sector. The union people get paid much more. The private sector gets paid less. It will cost us a lot less because they leave, they go home, we have no responsibility for them. We don't like what they do, we can fire them. We can move on and find a new company. Right now, we're stuck with what we have.

"If I win a seat on council, I would certainly look to make some cuts. I've done it in my own life and I think you need to do it.

"And I am not for a tax raise. That's just ridiculous at this time."

Bruce Gilbert: "In terms of the 9.2% tax increase being proposed, we're currently in a place in our nation and in our economy locally here, where we need to take a serious look at spending. I'm a proponent of an overall reduction in government spending.

"I think that the budget needs to be revisited to see where these funds are being appropriated, if in fact, they are being appropriated in accordance to waht the county would need and what the county wants, and the residents and businesses here in the county.

"In terms of the disparity between public sector incomes and private sector incomes, I'm a banker. I'm with Wachovia Bank. I've seen what the private sector is going through currently. What needs to be revisited there is those who make the decisions on wage increase or decrease, per position, and those positions be valued, and they should be paid commensurate with the value."

Charles Dertinger: "What we're talking about in a 9.3% increase is a proposed budget, one for which I can tell you here today and now, I will not be voting for in its current form. We have a $45 million surplus in Northampton County. $45 million and we're coming back to you all and saying that we need more money. It is not something that makes sense. it is not something that you would do in your own homes, within your own budgets. If you had money set aside in a rainy day fund, you would go to the rainy day fund before you would go out and borrow money or seek other ways to get money.

"The county spends and certainly wastes significant amonts of money. One of those areas in the past three or four years - we spent over $600 thousand in legal fees in an area that was entirely unnecessary. We have a significant Solicitor's staff in northampton County, and there really is no reason for us to carry a $45 million surplus ... ."

Lorraine Pasquale: "I agree with everyone here that I do not believe that a tax increase at this time is necessary, considering what the county has on hand and what people are facing in their homes with their own budgets at home. I feel a tax increase would just be disingenuous."

Blogger's Analysis:

1) Neither Dertinger nor Pasquale answer where they stand on the disparity between public and private salaries.

2) Dertinger and Pasquale advocate raiding the "rainy day" fund to balance a budget. This is irresponsible. It's contrary to both the Government Finance Officers Association (5 to 10 percent of general fund operating expenses) and Standard and Poors (2.4 months of expenses). In addition to exposing the county to risk, it delays the inevitable, and the result is a 60 or 70% tax hike once the rainy day fund is depleted. Stoffa's $330 million budget should have a rainy day fund between $33 million and $66 million. Finance Director Vic Mazziotti has projected it will be around $35 million.

3) Charles Dertinger notes that outside attorneys have been paid nearly "600 thousand in legal fees in an area that was entirely unnecessary." What Dertinger fails to say is that this money was spent to negotiate with 11 different unions, many of which were establishing their first contract. Perhaps that's why he's reluctant to discuss the disparity between public and private sector.