With new budget passed, tensions linger in Chowan

By Connie Sage

Correspondent

EDENTON, N.C.

Chowan County residents and commissioners were still reeling Friday after a contentious public meeting that resolved the county's fiscal mess - at least temporarily.

A Chowan County farmer said he was ashamed of the residents who heckled county officials before the Board of Commissioners hastily adopted a budget Thursday night.

One commissioner said his colleagues were not given a chance to speak.

With almost no discussion, commissioners unanimously approved a fiscal package that raises taxes by 9 cents but keeps most services intact.

The budget, along with approval of a referendum to let voters decide whether to increase the local sales tax, was aimed at resolving a budget crisis that came to light last month and threatened to put the county under state control.

County Manager Peter Rascoe said he called the Local Government Commission Friday morning and told the agency that the county "now has a balanced budget."

Rascoe took over in June from Cliff Copeland, who retired after 29 years. Rascoe said that on his first day on the job he was told the county was nearly out of cash and savings.

More than 800 attended Thursday's meeting.

"Many citizens voiced concerns that commissioners were moving too rapidly, and that further options ... both short and long term, needed to be investigated," Edenton resident John Sams said in a letter Friday to Sharon Edmundson, director of the Local Government panel's Fiscal Management Section.

"I was not in favor of LGC coming to take us over before... but now I am asking that LGC intercede in Chowan County's finances," wrote the long-time resident and retired Navy commander.

The county was told by the LGC in July to clean up its act "in a spirit of cooperation," said Rascoe, who alerted the agency about the problems when he took over.

The LGC will decide at its

Sept. 2 meeting whether to approve refinancing of a $1 million loan payment the county must honor by Sept. 29, LGC Communications Director Sara Lang said in an e-mail Friday.

The state commission needed to know that the county had a balanced budget by the end of last week in order to get necessary paperwork prior to that meeting, Rascoe said.

When asked if Friday was the cutoff time for the county to correct its budget problems, the LGC issued a prepared statement saying:

"Although the letter sent by the LGC to Chowan County did not provide a specific deadline for rectifying the budget situation, the County has been encouraged to deal with these issues in a timely and responsible manner."

Rascoe said that "for the most part" those attending Thursday's meeting "knew what had to be done - a combination of cost reductions and some tax increase."

"I've been out in living rooms, stores, businesses and farm fields to talk to citizens," he said, "and just about to a person, everybody... wanted the county to adopt a balanced budget allowing us to get on the road to fixing this."

Jimmy Parrish, an 80-year-old retired farmer, agreed.

"Let the past be gone and look to the future," he said on Friday. He's satisfied with the budget option that was approved, he said, but said he was ashamed to say he was from Chowan County during the meeting.

"They didn't care what anybody had to say," Parrish said. "They just booed; it was terrible."

David Barrett is a retired defense contractor manager from Northern Virginia who said he has attended about 80 percent of county commission meetings in the four years he's lived here.

Barrett said he doesn't want his taxes increased "any more than anyone else," but the budget option chosen "seemed like a good compromise to get us back on track."

The crowd, he said, "was way out of line, very disruptive and disrespectful. I was almost ashamed to be subjected to that kind of rude behavior."

The meeting obviously got out of control, Commissioner Bill Gardner said Friday.

"It's a shame. Anybody whose remarks were even remotely positive got jeered and hissed and booed. There was no pleasing that crowd; they wanted blood.

"This meeting should not have been about retribution," he said, "but simply about gassing up the bus and driving on."

Vice Chairman Jimmy Alligood said the crowd didn't give commissioners a chance to speak.

"They pretty much had their minds made up and I reckon they thought we did, too. I did what I thought was right" by making a motion to adopt Rascoe's amended budget option.

Alligood reiterated Friday that newcomers got a good deal with a lower tax rate and urged them to "get involved instead of complaining."

Some, like Edenton retiree Stanton Harrell, said Friday that all the commissioners should resign, adding it "might not be a bad idea" to have the state take over the county.

"Everybody's upset about it," he said. "How can you not be?"

Not everyone was disappointed.

The amended budget reinstates six positions in the county's social services department. Director Ben Rose said he had lost half of his social work staff and the newly adopted budget "definitely will help get back to where we were."

And even with the 9-cent tax rate increase, which boosts the county tax rate to 65 cents for every $100 of assessed property value, only two surrounding counties levy less than Chowan.

Perquimans County residents pay 41 cents and Pasquotank County property owners are charged 55 cents. At the high end, Gates county residents are billed 97-1/2 cents and Hertford County's property tax rate is set at 91 cents.

Edenton homeowners, who pay both a town tax and a county tax, now will pay a total of 94 cents per $100 of assessed property value.

A survey of 22 area cities, towns and villages shows that Edenton remains on the low end.

Hertford residents pay a combined county and town tax of 76 cents per $100; Winfall, also in Perquimans County, bills its property owners a total of 82 cents; and both Windsor and Askewville in Bertie County pay 93 cents.

At the high end for those paying both municipal and county taxes are Ahoskie at $1.58; Roper in Washington County at $1.61; and Murfreesboro at $1.59.