Projection1, Misinformation, and Obfuscation
My proposals regarding the large recent increase that I discovered in the County’s SIF fund balance have been focused on reducing the Social Service Department’s 2024 budgeted revenues and property tax levy to bring them in balance with historical Social Service Department expenditures. As explained in presentations at both HHS and HRFC standing committee meetings, the 2024 budget amendment proposal does not use or draw down the SIF fund balance. The SIF fund balance would remain in place and could be used by future Boards to fund unexpected Social Service expenditures and to free up funds for future debt service, if needed, to help pay for past capital project expenditures, specifically including for debt incurred for NCHC and MVCC.
At the same time that some individuals are criticizing my proposal for “borrowing from our savings to pay debt” and for “making a one time dip” into fund balance, neither of which is accurate, some of the same individuals are calling for the County to transfer funds from the SIF fund balance to the CIP rollover fund, so that the SIF funds can be used to pay for future unspecified capital projects.
The simple and clear version of the question we are facing is this:
Should the County stop adding to the SIF Fund Balance and use the extra money that was going into the SIF Fund to help pay for our existing debt without raising property taxes?
OR
Should the County raise property taxes (as in the current budget proposal) to help pay for existing debt and then remove funds from the SIF Fund balance to pay for future unspecified capital projects?
- Definitions:
Projection: “the mental process by which people attribute to others what is in their own minds“
Obfuscation” The act or process of obfuscating, or obscuring the perception of something; the concept of concealing the meaning of a communication by making it more confusing and harder to interpret. ↩︎