Davidson Town Hall gives itself big raise with new budget

Davidson's Town Board passed the FY2016 budget this past Tuesday which was 6.5% bigger than last year.  I don't know about you, but I don't know too many people who get those types of raises these days.

John Deem point out a few "highlights" in the Observer today in an article titled "Davidson budget keeps taxes unchanged".  From the Observer...

• Funding that would allow for an average 4 percent, merit-based pay raise for town employees.
• The addition of a firefighter to staff the Odell Fire Department Station 2 on Shiloh Church Road.
• A pay classification and staffing-level study to ensure that the town is “able to retain employees and make the best use of employee skills and abilities.”
• Forensic and property management software for the Police Department, document management software for the town administration, a pickup truck for Public Works Department and public information software.
• Pedestrian walking lights on Main Street near the Flatiron Grill, and improvements to Roosevelt Wilson and other town parks

Those all sound like good things, but there are some other tidbits that are left out of this article which should give taxpayers pause.

The actual amount of money set aside for Mi-Connection fell $200,000 this year.  Davidson continues to have the highest tax rate and by far the highest solid waste fees of the local towns. This is primarily due to the subsidies for the cable company.  This budget seems to make it clear that as those subsidies fall, the taxpayer should not expect any relief from town hall.

Instead, money will continue to be spent on things like electronic information kiosks and something called a "solar and pedal powered vehicle" for Recreation Department staff.

Toys for town hall rather than figuring out how to give money back to taxpayers after years of over taxation seems like there are still some misplaced priorities that need to be fixed.

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