Watauga County, North Carolina was a conservative county back when I first arrived some two plus decades ago. Fast forward to 1996, when local progressives, sick of a losing and deal-cutting Democratic Party that sometimes even supported right-wing Republicans behind the scenes, staged a bloody coup and took over the Party.
At first, progressive wins were hard and slow, but by 2006, the "new" Democratic Party had managed to claim all county and state district offices save one--the Register of Deeds.
Then came 2010 when, like much of the rest of the nation, we went down to defeat. Bigtime. Of course, elections have consequences.
Look what we've got.
Our post election de-briefing showed us we could probably have held on, barely, to the County Commission, had our Democrats (who held all five seats) not tried to raise sales taxes by 1/4 of a cent to fund a new county recreation center. But that's a story for another diary. Suffice it to say the Republican commissioner candidates swept the three seats up for grabs, mostly by running against the sales tax. They, the John Locke Foundation, and the local Republican Party got all up in it.
They complained the tax would hurt working people who were already just barely hanging on, among other things. Things like this:
“We all have friends who are out of work, and, in these economic times, it seems incredulous that we would consider this [sales tax] during these times,” said (Republican Party Chairwoman) Blume.
So enter three new Republican County commissioners who, less than two months into office, decide to hold a referendum for a 1/4 of a cent sales tax increase to pay down the county's "debt." Our county has debt for a new high school, a completely manageable debt, but that really doesn't matter because we're all about balanced budgets and cutting services, right?
So much for working people's pocketbooks and late-night figuring on which bill to pay.
A local Democratic Party column in today's issue of the newspaper puts what happened next best. Here's that column, in most part (not available online):
In pushing for the referendum, they complained about the County’s debt and warned about possible upcoming cutbacks in state funding for our schools. “We’ve got to do something,” said Commissioner Blust.
They then scheduled a public hearing for county citizens to weigh in.
The local Republican Party quickly jumped on the bandwagon to support the referendum. The county GOP had complained just a few months ago that any increase in sales taxes for any reason whatsoever was unacceptable. But this referendum was different, they said, because the state might cut back school money that could "result in the loss of 70 teacher positions," and there would be a need to "help offset some of the damage." Of course the Republican column blamed any and all state cuts on the Democratic governor, even though Republicans (including Watauga legislators Jonathan Jordan and Dan Soucek) are actually the ones who write and pass the state budget.
The county GOP insisted that their Commissioners were actually opposed to a sales tax increase but only wanted "the option." It’s worth noting that they have not explored other options even to this date, or, if they have, they haven’t bothered to share any of them with us. It’s also painfully obvious they didn’t even peek at the budget when they were running for office before expressing pledges that they would never raise taxes.
Then the Republican commissioners assured the county GOP convention on May 12 that they would likely vote against raising the sales tax that they were suggesting the rest of us should vote for. This is commonly called "drawing a line in the sand behind where you're currently standing” or “trying to work your way out of a paper bag.”
The public hearing was held on March 15th, and close to 300 people turned out. Five out of over 40 speakers complained about an increase in sales taxes. The rest thanked the commissioners for calling for a tax-hike that could save the schools. No speakers supported the referendum for debt reduction.
After the public hearing, the public left the building, the Republican commissioners returned to their seats, and they were in a visible snit.
Commissioner Miller complained, “This has morphed into something that we didn't intend." Commissioner Blust “resented” that emails were sent out to inform people of the hearing. And Commissioner Gable, visibly angry, suggested the whole public hearing was a conspiracy and that "the resolution we voted on was to dedicate the tax to debt reduction. Now we're saying we're going to use it for education!"
Commissioner Miller then tried the really-getting-old game of pitting teachers, sheriff’s deputies, and Social Services employees against each other by saying he doesn’t want to have to choose which of them will get the axe.
The Democratic commissioners tried to point out that all the money goes into the same pot anyway, so a sales tax to reduce the debt would simply free up options and funds for local schools as well as deputies and others. They also pointed out that the Republican commissioners control the Board (with a margin of 3-2) and that they have all the power to use the sales tax money for whatever they like. If they don't want to use any of it for education, they don't have to. If they want to use it all for debt reduction, they can do that too.
But the Republican commissioners would have none of it. Their response was to call the whole thing off because, Heaven forbid, someone might think they are actually trying to save teaching jobs and shore up local schools.
It seems crystal clear by now that these Republican commissioners are in over their heads and are simply not up to the job of running the county or of making decisions about a budget. They spend their time (and ours) instead trying to explain why they are against what they were originally for and why they are for what they were originally against.
They are now taking official county action based on anger and annoyance. They ask for citizen input and then become childish when that input doesn't match whatever their current non-thinking is.
We hate seeing Watauga County become a statewide laughing stock, but that appears to be where we're headed.
So here we are. The commissioners' on-again, off-again sales tax referendum arguments and actions were so incredibly bizarre that our recently-taken-over-by-the-right-wing-Jones Media, Inc.-corporation local newspaper actually wrote an editorial (also not online) calling them out on it. And the letters to the editor are just getting started, this one by a local name in a conservative area of our county:
Not playing fair
I am taking my ball and going home: That essentially was the message three of our county commissioners sent to the citizens of Watauga County by refusing to bring the quarter-cent sales tax to the people.
They were all for the referendum two weeks ago when it was being earmarked to spend down county debt. However, when residents of the county spoke loud and clear about their priority being education, the commissioners rescinded the referendum. Commissioner Nathan Miller was quoted in the Watauga Democrat as saying, "this has morphed into not what we intended this to morph into."
Mr. Miller, since, when is this about you and what you want or don't want? I thought you were elected to represent us. Commissioner Vince Gable is quoted in the same article as stating, "We've got a lot of other people whose jobs are in jeopardy also." Really Mr. Gable, is that what you thought that night was all about?
If I lose my job, my family will be devastated. If 70 teachers lose their jobs, our children will be the ones paying the price, too. How shortsighted can you be?
(Democratic) Commissioner Jim Deal hit the nail on the head when he said, "Not having a vote after such a massive turnout at the hearing would be a slap in the face to county residents."
You are correct Mr. Deal. It is a slap in the face. Perhaps commissioners Miller, David Blust and Gable will feel that same slap in the face at the next election.
That's right. It's not just happening in Wisconsin. It's happening right here in the northwest mountains of North Carolina. Teachers and other working people are getting fed up and are putting on their "comfortable shoes" to show up at courthouses and fight back.
It's just getting started.