Dear Mr. Adams,
As a current member of the Board of Commissioners, a staunch Conservative and a member of the BOC prior to this election who was a participant in the decision-making process, I wonder how much research went into authoring this piece. Do you have any knowledge of the source for this funding of the projects you call wasteful? Do you have any knowledge of the excellent, responsible fiscally disciplined spending of the prior BOC, the first Republican majority in Currituck, that allowed for us to save $50 million plus dollars to fund projected school needs so that no borrowing would be required? Do you have any idea what low tax rate our County maintained under the former BOC andstill managed to save this money? Do you know that that saving and fiscal discipline saved our County almost half-again the cost of the schools in financing charges if we had to borrow?You want to laud an elected liberal Democrat for words in a campaign, rather than reality, based on what research exactly? You applaud the unnecessary library facility? Would you be interested in learning that the facility was to be paid for by occupancy tax, it has now been scrapped by the new BOC members you applaud at a whopping savings of $6000 and, a new $1.2 million dollar library proposed by these same BOC members which does not qualify for occupancy tax funding and therefore will have to be paid from the County's general fund? I am very familiar with your organization and I am stunned to see such a poorly researched, cavalier piece applauding a Democrat defeat of a rare Republican majority in NE NC that by any standards had one of theCounty's most healthy bottom line. Eleven years with no tax increases and in fact, two tax decreases. In that same time, still managed to save $50 million for projected school construction. We constructed a new Judicial Center, renovated and restored the historic Whalehead Club, built a new Middle School for 750 students, a newly constructed Health Department, completed major renovations and expansions of four Elementary schools, renovations of the historic Currituck Courthouse, conversion of a State prison camp to a modern, state-of-the art County detention center, constructed an airport terminal building, extended our runway and built two airport hangars to house 20 plus aircraft for general aviation -all without a single tax increase or bond issuance. Funded and began construction of a new cooperative extension building. Can you name any other County in the State who has been able to do what we accomplished with not just no tax increase, but in fact with tax decreases? I will hold up our fiscal condition and decisions against any other County government you wish to name, Mr. Adams. Care to label us fiscally irresponsible again, Mr. Adams? Just last week we invited one of your new employees, most recently with Civitas to Currituck to address a Republican regional group we hosted to discuss the upcoming legislative session. Apparently, your research is limited to campaign rhetoric and articles from The Daily Advance, one of the most liberal newspapers in the State. That is like using the N&O as the standard for Conservative truth. Don't bother to respond with your explanation of how your organization is not partisan. Perhaps in your desperation to applaud something Democrat in the area of fiscal responsibility you decided to right a poorly researched, totally unjustified hit piece that slanders a decent, responsible fiscally disciplined BOC that was defeated due to an unprecedented distortion campaign that was sited in a newspaper editorial as being misleading and outright false. Those campaign claims are currently being investigated and libel action being seriously contemplated. But, what the heck. Why not just write an article applauding mere words and lambasting true accomplishment to hold up your supposed lofty interest in limited government and fiscal discipline. It will be amusing to see you eat your words about what winning the Currituck election was an indicator of. How entertaining it will be to see you twist and squirm in the face of your lack of research and apparent interest in truth when you see the headlines regarding the proposed(already), $50 million in spending and the likely tax increase necessary to fund it. How did you determine our library facility to be unnecessary and wasteful, Sir? Our occupancy tax by law must be spent on tourist related activities, thus the bike path in Corolla in response to tourists interest in an uninterrupted path from Dare County through Currituck a very busy, heavily trafficked highway 12 that would provide for alternative transportation, thus alleviating some of the burden of incredible traffic congestion. Same issue is true with the trolley-occupancy tax funded response to traffic problems unique to a vacation destination. User fees, Sir. Value added benefits that enhance the property tax values in the County.Then there is the equestrian center. Again, occupancy tax funded and the opportunity to provide a public park with rare water access. It is to house 4-H activities, hopefully a County fair and competitive equestrian events we hope will add mightily to our local economy.In your zeal to impusively determine all government endeavors to be wasteful, your irresponsible and premature celebration of the newly elected Democrat BOC contributes to the following. More uninformed cynicism of elected officials. I am sure you find this a noble accomplishment. A more difficult challenge to recruit people in to public service including those interested in ensuring more limited government and more fiscal responsibility who recognize, no matter what the actual facts are their will always be some hotshot, know-it-all more interested in demonstrating how "smart" he is than doing the actual work of being informed his self. That hotshot will send the shot heard around the world, a falsehood, resulting in an image, a belief, a commonly accepted mistruth that forever taints his ability to serve effectively or be judged accurately. Congratulations, hot shot. Sleep well tonight. You just celebrated a liberal majority that just may do more damge promoting municipal incorporations within the County borders resulting in more taxation and more government for our residents, commitments to keep campaign promises that would cost millions and millions of dollars resulting in the likely need to borrow or raise taxes which the former BOC worked so hard not to have to do, processes and methods that so far have included announcing changes to policy, funding, projects, etc. done outside a public process and announced as definitive with no vote, no public input, no notice. Stripping of all board appointments for the first time in the history of our County for strictly partisan purposes demonstrating a complete unwillingness to consider fellow BOC members, duly elected by their same constituents as equal, participating peers because they do not share the same partisan affilliation. Feel proud, Sir. Your might pen with all it's irrespnsible accolades and uninformed critique was surely used for noble, conservative purposes on behalf of the John Locke foundation. I will be sure to circulate your article and my response as widely as possible in all my Conservative circles. Please feel free to visit Currituck and explain the horrible disservice your ill-informed piece has done to our County. I will be more than pleased to host your visit and to reaquaint myself since our last encounter at the Bush Social Security rally in Raleigh.Perhaps if you choose to crawl from under your pompous rock and write again about our County and the wonderful, fiscally responsible legacy of the newly defeated BOC, you might consider a more broad and balanced approach to your research other than simply echoing the typical campaign rhetoric of liberal Democrats and the "reporting" of our liberal daily paper.
Without respect,
Owen Etheridge
Commissioner, Currituck County
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