Edward M. Sweat t and Carolyn H. Sweatt Publishers
Edward M. Sweatt Ekiltor
Susan Usher News Editor
Doug Rutter and Terry Pope Staff Writers
Johnny Craig Sports Editor
Peggy Earwood Office Manager
Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Director
Ttmberley Adams & Cecelia Gore Advertising Representatives
Tammie Galloway & Dorothy Brennan Graphic Artists
Will lain Manning Pressman
Brenda Clemmons Photo Technician
Lonnie Sprinkle Assistant Pressman
Phoebe Clemmons and Frances Sweatt Circulation
PAGE 4-A, THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 1991
Grow Up, You Guys!
Our boys ? Butch and Tommy, that is ? are bickering again
up in Raleigh.
Butch is Rep. E. David "Butch" Redwine, a Democrat from
Shallotte. Tommy is Secretary of Transportation Thomas
"Tommy" Harrelson, a Republican from Southport.
Sometimes they just don't see eye to eye. This time it's that
little fight they got into two years ago coming to a head again.
A few years ago the state wasn't interested in adding on any
more state-run welcome centers, though some folks in
Brunswick County thought one was needed here near the South
Carolina line. Similar ideas had emerged at the other end of the
state along U.S. 17 and in the mountains.
So, a compromise was struck. The state agreed to build the
centers and local supporters agreed to find the money for their
operation (somehow, somewhere) from non-state sources ?
chambers of commerce, local governments, etc.
Lo and behold, last year we found Butch and friends trying
to wangle money from fellow legislators to help run the centers
to the tune of $200,000 over a two-year period. To do it, they
proposed taking money away from DOT: the personalized li
cense plate fund. Its revenues are used for landscaping and wild
flower planting.
That didn't sit well with Tommy and his cohorts in DOT.
The landscaping is VERY popular with the public. They not on
ly want to continue it, but expand their efforts. They thought
they had bent over backwards to even agree to build the centers.
Some nasty words were exchanged and the future of the cen
ters looked in danger, at least for a moment or two.
Well, Butch and his buddies are at it again, with money in
both Senate and House versions of the budget for the centers.
The money, again, would come from the tag fund.
Let's pick up the scene as it might be played out this week in
Raleigh:
Butch: "If we want to spend it, we will. (Na-na-na-na-na.)."
Tommy: "But you were there. You heard them promise. We
made a deal. A promise is a promise. (Didn't I hear somewhere
that you're an Eagle Scout, Butch?)"
Butch: "If we want to spend it, we will. That's our PRE
ROGATIVE."
Tommy: "You think we won't stop building that center at
Shallotte, just keeping pushing me. We can drop it, glass walls,
landscaping, redwood and terrazzo picnic tables, everything."
Butch: Hey, we're the General Assembly. You work for us.
If we want to spend the money, we will."
Tommy: If you do, I'll take away your wildflowers. And the
people in Brunswick County really like their wildflowers along
the road. So there."
Butch: "Go ahead; you'll have to answer to the people of
Brunswick County. They want that welcome center to succeed."
Tommy: "And you know the landscaping that was going to
go on the U.S. 17 Bypass of Shallotte.. .well, you can forget it.
And you'd better hope no plants die near those bridges that you
wanted so bad, 'cause we're not gonna help replace them."
"Speaking of those bridges.. .didn't you want one built to
Sunset Beach?"
Grow up, you guys!
Hard Call, But Leaders Make The Tough Decisions
It takes tough people to make
tough decisions.
Why is it hard? Because the feed
back is so immediate and often ex
tremely negative. Consider the re
cent decisions by Brunswick Coun
ty Commissioners. Accusations of
racism, partisanship; marches, press
conferences.
Taxpayers and voters need to put
those recent personnel decisions in
context, as part of a series of tough
decisions.
The county's going through a
transition. For a while county gov
ernment had simply sat, like an in
ert blob, getting bigger with little to
show for it Rather than confronting
issues or leading in dynamic new
directions it just sat, its so-called
leaders avoiding making the big de
cisions.
Something had to be done.
Finally there's a majority of com
missioners who arc willing to try.
They may not be 100 percent right
Susan w
Usher v ^^7
every time, but they're acting, and
they're willing to take the heat and
Hack that result from their deci
sions.
Yes, it's hard when a friend, fam
ily member or a loyal party follower
loses a job.
Some of the people who are los
ing their jobs? Clerk Regina Al
exander, in particular ? I consider
my friends.
It's hard to see another pro
ject ? be it solid waste, water or
911, take precedence in funding
over a pet program.
When times were flush, county
government didn't hesitate to re
spond to most every wish expressed
by the public ? a full-time veterans'
service officer, expanded senior
programming, litter control, recre
ation, 911, paid daytime emergency
response teams. The list goes on.
Over the years the cost has begun
adding up.
1 wanted all those programs, too,
and thought we could afford them. I
don't know about you. but my dol
lars aren't going as far as they did
even three years ago. We're making
some tough family financial deci
sions and I'm not surprised to see
the county do the same.
In the past we've seen commis
sioners sometimes simply not act,
either because they couldn't agree
on what to do or because they
didn't want to invoke the ire of one
group of constituents or another.
We like making everyone happy,
be it voters or members of our own
families. Saying "yes" is easier than
saying "no." But when wc do, there
arc long-term consequences harder
to bear than the immediate pouting
and tears that a "no" can prompt. Or
even the spiteful "I'll show you"
that might come afterwards.
It takes the long view to hang
tough.
It's no different right now for the
Brunswick County Board of Com
missioners. From now until No
vember 1992 may well be "I'll
show you" time.
Some folks are pouting, charging
the recent actions by commissioners
were motivated by the race and/or
party affiliations of those being laid
off or fired, whatever you want to
call it. Given the statistics regarding
county employees reported else
where in this paper, that's a difficult
proposition to accept. I don't.
Hard times bring hard choices. It
takes tough people, it takes leaders,
to make tough decisions.
I'm Glad Budget Season Comes Once A Year
I've somehow survived another
month of June.
That may not seem so newswor
thy 10 most readers. A lot of people
survive June every year. But for me,
June is a very special month.
You see, June is the last month of
the fiscal year, which means local
governments across the county have
been scrambling all month to figure
out their budgets before the 1992
fiscal year starts July 1.
When local governments scram
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Say No To Big, Feverish Government Here
is not the whole story. There is an
other layer of government there, the
National Capital Parks and Planning
Commission, which performs some
county government functions which
gets another 50 cents or so on the
S100 assessed value of property and
the state of Maryland gets another
bite (reportedly about 21 cents).
Assessment there is 40% of sale
value, reassessed every three years
so that a property worth $100,000
would be taxed about SI, 400, more
than twice the equivalent tax in
Brunswick County. But since prop
erty sales in Prince George's Coun
ty for equivalent value are about
To the editor:
We have now arrived at the time
when Capital "D" Democracy has
received a bit of comeuppance
when revenues suddenly fall short
of government expenditures and
budgets must be cut back at the
same time taxes must be increased.
And the liberals complain that the
poor and middle class taxpayers will
bail us out instead of the fat cats who
supposedly can afford to pay more,
and conservatives begin to get the
picture in focus, as Representative
Johnathan Ryne said: "North Caro
lina is not a tax and spend state but a
spend and tax state."
All the while the liberals delight
in picturing our state as being at the
bottom of government services and
declaiming against the "regressive"
sales tax on food etc. But their
viewpoint is grossly out of focus.
One needs to examine the ser
vices and taxes in long-time politi
cal strongholds of liberalism. ..say
Prince George's County, Md. Re
fugees from that area understand
ably cannot give an objective as
sessment of government services
there, but there ARE tax figures to
examine.
The latest news is that the county
there found a court-route to increase
the property tax rate (previously set
at $2.40/$ 100 to $2.60/$ 100). In ad
dition they increased a county "en
ergy" tax 2.5 percent, expected to
add $3.23 per month to household
utility bills.
But the county property tax rate
twice those in our county, the prop
erty tax in Maryland tops ours by a
factor of four plus!
And the higher food prices there
more then make up For the sales tax
on food paid locally.
And the Prince George's County
budget is about 51,400 per person,
whereas the Brunswick County
budget is about $700 per person.
Most of us can no longer afford
to live in a progressive Utopia, and
hopefully Brunswick County will
not become the scene of big, fever
ish government.
Karl E. Brandt
Shallotte
Help Amateur Radio Association
To the editor:
I would like to direct your atten
tion to the Brunswick County
Amateur Radio Association and to
the effectiveness with which it
serves our county, particularly in
times of emergency.
Its 34 members are in a position
to provide invaluable key assistance
to the county civil defense structure
and to the sheriff's dept. through
use of their individual equipment in
conjunction with a member-owned
"repeater." Also they are ready to
man the 11 evacuation shelters in
the county with their own
equipment when hurricanes threaten
and can give immediate notification
to police and rescue squads from
accident scenes with their vehicle
installed equipment
And, during the Gulf War, they
relayed many servicemen's mes
sages, or patched them directly
through to the phones of loved ones.
1 can personally testify to the value
of the phone patch. We talk to our
daughter and her family, missionar
ies in Uruguay, every week over our
telephone through a phone patch
from the radio of Alton Clemmons
in Civietown without the expense of
an overseas phone call.
The Brunswick County Amateur
Radio Association is beginning a
drive to raise funds to acquire need
ed new equipment and maintain ex
isting equipment. Their most impor
tant need is a remote controller for
their repeater, which will cost
S1,000. I appeal to your readers to
send their tax exempt donations to
this most worthy effort at P.O. Box
2932, Shallotte, N.C. 28459.
Donald A. Lamb
Shallotte
Doug
Ruiter
ble, I scramble with them. That's
my job. And when the money of
taxpayers is involved, I have to
scramble extra hard.
For local officials, budget season
seems to be one of the most hectic
times of the year. There are very
few times when a governing board
will meet more often than when it is
developing a budget.
But the fact of the matter is, gov
ernments need new budgets every
year because they deal with more
money on a regular basis than any
one person could keep up with in
their head.
When you're in my situation and
there's only one person spending
the money, it's simple to keep track
of every penny. It's easy for me to
look at my checkbook and decide if
I can afford a new pair of sneakers.
But a government taking in sev
eral hundred thousand dollars or
several million dollars a year needs
a specific spending plan. Govern
ment officials have to decide how
they plan to spend the money a full
year in advance.
If you ask me, developing a bud
get is one of the most important
roles of a governing board. The
budget reflects the attitude of the
board about public services and the
future of the community.
You can't tell very much about an
elected board by how much money
it sets aside for utilities, streets or a
police force.
I think you need to get to the
heart of the budget to determine
how a board feels about the com
munity it serves.
Governing bodies that sack a cer
tain amount of money in a contin
gency fund and build reserve funds
obviously care about their commu
nities.
Board members who don't allow
for unanticipated expenses thai come
out of contingency or build reserve
funds to handle future growth are
failing the public they were elected
to serve.
Above all, the way a governing
board reacts to a proposed tax in
crease tells me more about its mem
bers than anything else.
There are some boards that sim
ply accept tax increases as a matter
of course. Some elected officials see
tax increases as inevitable. They
think nothing can be done to avoid
them, and they don't even attempt
to avoid them.
But there are boards that eyeball
every Figure and make cuts where
they can be made. Cutting back is
never simple, but it is possible and
necessary in many circumstances.
Any governing board can shrug
its shoulders and vote for a tax in
crease. It takes a board with guts to
make tough decisions and save the
taxpayers money.