For me things that interfere with my sleep are of course the normal stuff … concerns about my kids, my wife, and my 90-year-old mother-in-law. Again that’s normal. After those things, it is “am I going to be able to continue to pay my taxes … will I get taxed out of my house?” Yes, I know; you’re asking did I work hard and did I save hard? I think I did.
Maybe you are like me, retired, and the words “fixed income” are more meaningful suddenly. If you think about this you, like me, you will come to the realization that our property taxes are a variable cost, not a fixed cost. Here in Cook County, “variable” clearly has come to mean UP. I have very good control over my budget with that one exception. Someone else controls that tax piece, our county commissioners, and the administrator. The “ups” in our taxes have been pretty big.
I think our commissioners and administrator have been on a “spree.” More important than a spree is the idea that the commissioners can’t say “no.” Someone identified a need for a pool liner, and the county got a YMCA. Someone identified a need for a new roof on the county garage in Hovland, and instead of the roof, there is a new building coming.
Recently the commissioners handed out raises to county staff ranging from 19 percent to 30 percent. This pattern has continued and the discussion in the county right now is over our jail; the Cook County Law Enforcement Center (LEC) expansion. This item is fresher, and it becomes obvious that the process is flawed; where is the “needs analysis”? Where is the “cost benefit analysis”?
Our commissioners have at hand two objective reports, one from the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission (ARDC), and another from the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC), neither of which supports the idea of a new LEC in Cook County. The commissioners have chosen to rely heavily on a subjective report from Wold Architects & Engineers out of St. Paul. Wold is trying to sell the county the architectural and design work for a new, larger LEC.
In my view, the data in the Wold report is greatly flawed. Again, in my view, there is a conflict of interest inherent to our commissioners using the data in the Wold report, over the DOC and ARDC reports.
One cannot separate the ideas of accountability and good stewardship from the role of a county commissioner. Call your commissioner and tell him or her, that you expect excellent stewardship of the resources you the voter and taxpayer places in their hands.
Gordon J. Salisbury
Hovland
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