When you go to vote on November 3rd, here are some interesting facts that you need to know before you cast your ballot.
If you think your one vote doesn’t make a difference, it does and can change the course of our County spending going forward.
• The County is in debt 5.8 million dollars. I remember attending a meeting at the Senior Center 3-4 years ago, and the Commissioners told us they were in debt 5.7 million dollars. I cannot believe they have not paid that principal down in that amount of time. I can’t remember when the County put a debt service tax on the spring tax notices, but they tell me it is legal to use some of that money to pay off old debt by putting a portion of that money in the general fund. Whether it is legal or not is one question, but in my opinion, all of the money collected for the debt service tax should be used to pay down the debt and not be deposited into the general fund.
• I started following the actions of the Clarion County Commissioners when they decided to build a new Annex to the Courthouse. I wondered at that time where they were going to get the money to fund the project. The amount that was spent back then was $450,000 in a building design.
“WHERE DID THIS MONEY COME FROM TO PAY EADS FOR DESIGN?!”
• I would like to go back to the Spring of 2014 when they approved a contract for a tax collection program, called Devnet. The price of that program was around $100,000 and caused a lot of confusion among the tax collectors, and it did not work very well. They have paid somewhere around $52,000 towards this program. Now, the Commissioners are trying to break the contract. How much is this going to cost??? Now, that they are trying to break that contract, they have bought another tax program from Tyler Technology’s for $317,000.
“WHERE IS THIS MONEY GOING TO COME FROM?!”
• This past summer, after very little public input, the Commissioners signed an option to purchase a “one” acre piece of ground to the tune of $100,000 to build a new 911 center. They signed a contract to the EADS group to design a center to the tune of $195,000. The projected cost of this fiasco is going to be around 4 million.
“WHERE IS THIS MONEY GOING TO COME FROM?!”
“WE ARE NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT; WE CAN’T PRINT MONEY WHEN WE RUN LOW!!”
Maybe the current Commissioners have a money tree that they are going to plant at some secret location in the County. They will decide the location at a closed door Commissioners’ Meeting.
We cannot afford another 4 years of the reckless spending habits of our current Commissioners.
Take the time to go vote on November 3rd.
Submitted by: Keith Etzel, Concerned Citizens of Clarion County
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of exploreClarion.com.
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