“Tense” budget negotiations in Forsyth County:
Forsyth County commissioners approved their 2007-08 budget yesterday, and Vice Chairwoman Debra Conrad, who cast the only dissenting vote, paid for it.
Conrad refused to sign onto the $387 million spending plan because it included a 3-cent increase in the property-tax rate. That money will be dedicated to paying off $275 million in school bonds that voters approved last year.
After she voted against the tax increase, which was approved 6-1, the commissioners stripped funding for some of Conrad’s pet projects from the proposed budget, including a grant for the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce to promote nanotechnology and money for a lobbying firm. Commissioners also cut financing for the Piedmont Triad Film Commission from $50,000 to $25,000.
Big effin’ deal, though I’m happy funding for Conrad’s pet projects got pulled. Just typical budget negotiations.
With that in mind, I’ll paraphrase Guilford County Commissioner Steve Arnold, who summed up county budgets pretty well a few years ago. When negotiating with a multi-million-dollar budget, Arnold said, commissioners give a few thousand dollars to one set of friends, take a few thousand from another set of friends and act like they’re doing something. But the result is always the same: Taxes go up.
