Commissioners spending money

I just finished looking through the latest Chatham County Commissioner's Meeting Agenda for the January 16th meeting. A couple items caught my eye:

First, an organization called Go Global NC seems to be asking for money to send local government officials on a boondoggle to Mexico to participate in an 'in-depth program for economic and workforce development', at a meager cost of just $6,375 per person. Each participant gets nine days in Mexico, including transportation, meals, and 'other expenses'.

Other than that this seems like a nine-day vacation for government officials, the US State Department has just imposed Travel Warnings on Mexico, particularly on the areas around Mexico City (Level 2 - increased caution due to crime) along with five Mexican states who were stamped Do Not Travel (Level 4), similar to Syria and Somalia.

I hope the Commissioners decide not to spend my money on this visit.

Second, in other Commissioner spending, the County is basically giving away the former Henry Siler School in Siler City to a group that will put up low income housing.

Low income housing may or may not be a worthy goal; it has not seemed to work in the long term for as long as governments have been trying it.

My understanding, however, is that a group tried to purchase the former Henry Siler School site (cash money to the County) but that the Commissioners did not like the idea of having someone pay for the land and then try to make a profit on it. If that is not the case, I would be interested in hearing a more complete explanation.

Chatham County School Grades

Our local newspaper recently released the 2016 grades for each of the Chatham County schools. Despite an upbeat approach, detailed reading of the article (a copy is at http://bit.ly/Chatham_Grades) gave me the impression that we could find improvements in education for our next generation. The grades were:

Margaret Pollard (6-8): B 
Pittsboro Elementary (K-5): B 
Silk Hope (K-8): B 
Chatham Central (9-12): B 
Northwood (9-12): B 
Perry Harrison (K-5): B 

Moncure (K-8): C 
North Chatham (K-5): C 
Siler City Elementary (K-5): C 
Bennett (K-8): C 
Bonlee (K-8): C 
Jordan Matthews (9-12): C 
Horton (6-8): C 
J.S. Waters (K-8): C 

Virginia Cross Elementary (K-5): D 
Chatham Middle (6-8): D 

SAGE Academy (Alternative 9-12): Not Listed 
Science and Technology: Not Listed

That got me to wondering about how much we spend on education. From the School Board website, I found that there are about 8,700 students in Chatham schools, supported by an education establishment of 1,190 employees. So, there is one staff member for every 7.3 students. It would be nice to know how many are support staff versus teaching staff, but I did not see that breakout on the school board website.

Total non-capital budget for the school system is over $93 million dollars this year (see http://bit.ly/ChathamSchools17-18). Put another way, each student receives on average $10,670 per year in tax dollar support.

This year's school calendar shows 170 school days, with an additional two early release days. Guessing an average of 7 hours per day in class, that means each student should learn something for about 1,190 hours. Again, looking at that another way, each learning hour averages almost $9 per hour per student.

Median salary for teachers is roughly $45,000 per year. Teachers spend about 8 more days per year than do the students. Allowing for a 9-hour day on average to allow for prep time and grading, that suggests each teacher works a bit over 1,600 hours in the school year. A standard business work year with holidays and including 2 weeks vacation is 1,920 hours. Using the standard work year, each teacher works for about 83% of a standard work year. IF that 83% were a full work year, the equivalent salary would be $54,200. Not bad.

So what? We spend A LOT of money on educating students. I suspect most of our teachers are dedicated and hard-working professionals doing their best. But, something is not working right, or our Chatham County scores would be higher, and as a nation we would be out-scoring more of our world competitors in math and the sciences. I don't think more money is the answer to our education problems.

My suspicion is that we are asking our education system to do in excess of what it can deliver. I am  guessing that a lot of our education issues are based more on parental lack of oversight and encouragement, students spending too much in and out of class time flipping through websites and messaging friends, courses that are more politically correct than rigorous, and a society that glorifies sports and entertainment over mathematics, science, farming, or trades.

One of my least-favorite public figures once wrote a book that claimed it takes a village to raise a child. Maybe so; maybe it takes public figures, entertainers, sports figures, journalists, clergy, peer groups and others along with parents to encourage students to study, work hard, respect their teachers, and understand the value of their elementary and secondary educations.

And maybe it takes all of us in Chatham County to understand where our tax dollars go, and then to help determine if funds are being spent wisely. Chatham County - get involved! Research school board candidates, go to school board meetings, understand the budgets, root out the facts versus hype and hysteria, and make solid and well-reasoned selections when voting for school board candidates.

2016 Chatham County Tax Increases

Property Taxes are going up

Most of us have heard that our Commissioners are increasing property taxes in Chatham County. Do you know how your money is being spent? County tax information is posted on the County’s website - in 17 separate, difficult to read documents.

Here is a summary that I have compiled after reading through those documents.

Property taxes are going up 5.5%, by 1.19 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to a total of 63.38 cents per $100. That is top of an estimated 3.7% increase in your property values. Together those give the County $62.29 million dollars of property taxes to spend. And property taxes account for 58% of total county revenue. Total general fund expenditures are going up 7% from this year to next year, up to $107,430,261.

As an example, if you have a $250,000 piece of property, its value will now increase to $259,250. Taxes would have been $1,554.75. Now expect taxes of $1,643.13, an increase of $88.38. Think you own your property? Try not paying your county property taxes and see how long you keep it (but that is a post for another time).

Where do our Commissioners plan to spend that $107 million?

County Schools take up the largest portion of the budget, and will get a $1.5 million increase over last year, for 3 more reading specialists, 5 teachers, and 10.5 teaching assistants, along with $700,000 in staff raises.

Next, staffing for the county will increase by 2.5 in social services, plus 5 more detention officers, an admin assistant for central permits, and one-half of a nutritionist. Staff will receive a 4% increase in salaries. Total county full-time equivalent staff increases from 477 to 507, which is $39,155,539 in salaries and benefits. The largest department is the Sheriff's office, with 160 full-time equivalent staff.

Health insurance (how is that Obamacare working for cost control?) is going up 15%, or $650,000.

Increases in social services include a new affordable housing commission, converting the Henry Siler School to low income housing, and addressing substandard housing.

Individual county department increases are
  Central permitting - up 22%
  Inspections - up 16%
  Schools - up 5%
  County attorney - up 38%
  Economic development - up 46%
  Emergency operations - up 20%
  Human services agencies - up 53%
  General services (I’m not sure what all this includes) - up 47%, to $12,400,000.

Our fire districts also want more money.
  Goldston from 8 cents to 9 cents per $100.
  Northview from 8.3 cents to 8.6 cents per $100.
  Bennett from 8 cents to 9 cents.

And we are buying capital improvements.
  $236,500 for bike lanes (can someone post where these will be?)
  $6,200,000 for the new Health Services building at CCCC (the first year of two years cost)
  $6,400,000 for a new high school (first year of of three years cost)

The three biggest areas of expense are
  Schools, at $36,800,000
  General services, at $12.5 million
  Social services, at $10.8 million

Are you satisfied?

So, are you satisfied with giving more money to the Commissioners to spend as they see fit? If so, that's great, as they certainly are spending more of our money. If not, well, November is coming. Either way, go vote.