We must confess to being mildly surprised that local municipal residents still appear to be so complacent toward the constant growth of local governments.
Six municipalities have held state-mandated public hearings in recent weeks to hear from the citizens they ostensibly serve about the proposed budgets being contemplated in each of their towns and cities.
The score: governments 6, residents 0 – and in each case, the governments came away with the win for bigger government because the opposition never showed up.
At public hearings in Burlington, Graham, Mebane, Gibsonville, Elon, and Haw River, a grand total of zero residents appeared to voice any comments on their municipality’s budget.
Not a single person spoke at any of the six public hearings on their respective budgets.
Now, we suspect government folks – both bureaucrats and elected officials – see that result and think to themselves that their residents must be largely satisfied with the operations of their town/city.
We seriously doubt that this is the case, but it is a puzzle that residents are not more engaged.
Gibsonville imposed a 4-cent tax rate hike after its conspicuously uneventful public hearing, while Graham adopted a 2-cent increase after its veritable “moment of silence” for its own public hearing – and the result has been an increase in the municipal tax burden of 8 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
The reaction on the elected boards themselves has been rather monolithic. The only vote against any of the six budgets came from Graham’s mayor Jennifer Talley, who said, quite directly, that she doesn’t like tax increases – even after she defended the spending for which her city’s higher tax rate was imposed.
Even in those jurisdictions with no tax increase, there was plenty of added financial pain that might have drawn residents’ ire.
Mebane raised water and sewer rates by 10 percent; Gibsonville hiked water rates by 25 percent (!), all in one fell swoop.
Burlington hiked its water and sewer rates 5 percent, while adding $10 a month to the trash and recycling fee.
But not a single resident turned up anywhere to voice dissent, or even to ask about their municipality’s rationale for such increases.
We’re very much concerned that rather than the satisfaction which public officials are attributing to their residents, the real reason people might not be turning out is an increasing feeling that it wouldn’t do any good, so why waste their time.
It’s easy enough for residents to assume that municipal officials have already decided what they want to do, even before hearing from residents.
So whether residents turn out or not, it seems that their leaders are probably going to proceed straight down the spending and taxing road they’re on.
Whatever the reason for the lack of involvement, this is not a healthy sign.
Ironically, this lack of the public’s engagement comes in the year in which some of the town and city council members (and aldermen in Gibsonville) must stand for election.
In recent years, incumbent members of some boards haven’t even faced any competition when they’ve come up for reelection.
But in our view they should. Filing season begins July 7. We guess we’ll see whether the public is as satisfied as some officials apparently believe they are when the fields of contenders, if any, begin to form.
