It seems fitting–an understatement–that we revisit a column I wrote just about a year ago, titled “A Tale of Two Counties.” Obviously, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel, “A Tale of Two Cities” depicting life in England and France set in the 18th century: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
I used the widely read narrative as an analogy to tell the tale of leadership in two counties: Koochiching County and our own Cook County.
One county believes local government should live within its means (“the best of times”). The other county doggedly cultivates the concept that government means you spend whatever it takes . . . “takes” being the operative word here (“the worst of times”).
The motif of dualities begins with Cook County Administrator Jeff Cadwell expressing his views on the county’s expanding budget dilemma during a June 20, 2017 Committee of the Whole commissioner meeting.
Cadwell: “I get the analogy that the coordinator up at Koochiching County, at the last meeting that we went to down in Silver Bay, she said, ‘You know several . . . twenty years ago, we made this decision about what is going to be in our budget, how much staff we’re gonna have, what services we’re gonna provide, and then every year since then it’s been a very simple process. We have an incremental expense that just about covers the cost of living and it takes care of this and it takes care of that’ . . . and they’ve had a very easy process.”
Cadwell expands, “But twenty five years ago, they were sitting where we’re sitting now. We’re sitting with the fact that we haven’t balanced the budget. We haven’t addressed our resources versus our expenditures.” (agonizingly obvious!)
“When I was budgeting for cities,” Cadwell summarily concludes, “I simply laid out the revenues, the expenditures, our debt service, our enterprise funds and I took out the levy number completely and I got down to the bottom and basically, [when] you got down to the bottom . . . you had a negative number, and that’s the number you had to turn around and put up here in your levy to solve for zero (holds up a budget document and points to a numerical figure). And that’s how you solve for zero.”
So that is Cook County’s ill-boding tale.
Now let’s recount the tale of Koochiching County. To do this, I spoke with respected longtime Koochiching County Commissioner Wade Pavleck.
Pavleck: “Before I became a commissioner–some 25 years ago– our property taxes had gone up 7 percent three years in a row and we were feeling it! Three of our five commissioners were voted out of office and the other two chose not to run.
“So the county started with five new commissioners who sat down together and agreed to take more of a business approach to county finances. We would often freeze the levy. We lowered our workforce through attrition and we didn’t fund organizations that were non-essential to government. We would, once in a while, provide a onetime grant to an organization, but we never got into perpetual funding.
“We would look at our annual tax revenue, and budget accordingly. If we didn’t have the money, we didn’t spend it.
“We found that it was always best to withhold money, because the more money you got the more you would find ways to spend it.
“As commissioners, we would watch where we ranked in the state when it came to the cost of local government per capita. We noticed, over the years, that we started at the middle of the pack and moved to one of the lowest in the state–third lowest, I believe [the state auditor tracks these figures].
“Interestingly, all the time we were lowering our cost of government to local citizens, we noticed Cook County was increasing its costs and subsequently ranks among the top among Minnesota’s 87 counties.”
Referencing Minnesota counties, I think it appropriate to introduce an ancillary–but powerfully telling–piece of information at this point in our tale.
According to the MN State Auditor, in the last 17 years (2000 to 2017) Carver County (Chaska area) experienced a levy increase of 112.41 percent. They also collect the highest property tax in the state and one of the highest in the nation.
Koochiching County’s levy, on the other hand, during this same 17-year period, increased 46.57 percent.
Care to guess what the percentage of levy increase was for Cook County?
From 2000 to 2017 Cook County’s levy increased 131.06 percent!
If you were to add in the 2018 levy increase, the tale only grows more grim for taxpayers.
I would suggest, if you are still uncertain as to whom to vote for in the upcoming county commissioner elections, you find out who the “cartel” is supporting and vote for the opposing candidates. You know the group I am referring to. The group, which monopolizes business interests at the expense of taxpayers.
Unfortunately, this group remains arrogantly dismissive, projecting an attitude that, not so subtly, conveys, “We are above you. We don’t need your opinion. Just do your job and pay your taxes!” This group of individuals appears to be void of humility and the presence of mind to even know how they are perceived.
It is my opinion, any group that requires the suspension of reason, as a necessity for support is certainly suspect.
If you want to change the outcome of Cook County’s ongoing tale, you need to change present “leadership.”
No if, ands, or buts about it.
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics.
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