Sunday, December 12, 1999
Campbell County due for a tax hike
BY KAREN SAMPLES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT — Campbell County officials work in a building with steam heat, frayed carpeting and mismatched metal desks. The place is so austere that employees with birthdays bring in their own cakes.
This year, the Fiscal Court is raising taxes. Clearly, the problem isn't big bills for luxury furniture.
Everyone who works in Campbell will have more money taken from their paychecks this year. Depending on their salaries, people will pay up to $372.75 in county taxes, compared with $237.50 last year. Businesses also will pay more.
The county's budget is $20 million. Five years ago, it was $14 million. The jail is one reason for the jump, records show. It will cost about $2 million this year, compared wotj $1.3 million in 1994.
Taxes, meanwhile, have stayed the same for 12 years. The previous Fiscal Court sometimes balanced its budget by dipping into a cash surplus.
Judge-executive Steve Pendery, who took office last year, is doing the right thing. The surplus won't last forever. As they raise taxes, officials also are improving collection, to make sure everyone pays what they should.
Mr. Pendery's common sense comes with political risk. Then again, he'd better behave courageously — he's getting paid enough.
As judge-executive, he'll earn about $67,000 this year. His predecessor, Ken Paul, made $48,000.
The General Assembly ordered these raises for various
officials in 1998. At the time, some politicians hinted they would give back the cash if elected. Mr. Pendery says he never made that promise.
Good for him. We can expect public officials to scrutinize their budgets, but we can't ask them to give up their salaries. That's a promise only manipulative rich people would make, and American politics doesn't need more of them.
• The mother of all deadlines: Remember those grandiose plans for a Millennium Monument? These days, it's looking more like a small millennium box.
Working on a tight deadline, construction workers are finishing a brick building adjacent to the World Peace Bell in Newport. Visitors will be able to buy gifts, read information about the bell and use a second-story crosswalk to see it up close.
The bell hangs in an interesting structure of steel and frosted glass. But the visitor's center looks like ... well, take your pick of boring but necessary architecture. A phone company office. A 1950s elementary school.
A few years ago, developers Wayne Carlisle and David Hosea were dreaming of a 1,200-foot tower — the Millennium Monument — to hold the bell. But financing has proved elusive. Mr. Carlisle still intends to build the tower, but for now, he's settling on the box.
That Year 2000 thing is one deadline that won't budge.
• Sound off: In last Sunday's column, I argued against efforts to post the Ten Commandments in Kentucky's public schools.
Some responses:
“I am so glad someone has finally said this! People need to realize that regardless of what they believe, it isn't right or fair to force their opinions on others.” — Jennifer Wiedeman, Cincinnati
“By attacking the fundamentalists, you are questioning their motives and attempting to silence their beliefs. We don't need your religious intolerance. ... You are as wrong as the ACLU.” — Edward L. Smith Jr., Park Hills
“I grew up in a "nontraditional' (that is, non-Christian in a fundamentalist town) home, yet we were not only disseminated books such as Women of the Bible and Men of the Bible but also subjected to structured prayer sessions and Bible studies within an Ohio public school system. My family ... finally brought suit via the ACLU to get the school system to abide by the ideology of separation of church and state. ...
“Twenty years later, the same issue has once again come to a head. My children are lucky enough to be in a public school system that understands the need for diversity and freedom of choice. Yet, I would not hesitate for an instant to fight the battle once again to remove untoward religious exposure from the public schools. ...
“Thank you for your courage to speak on this issue that is so personal to me.” — Jennifer Hardy.
Karen Samples is Kentucky columnist for the Enquirer. Her column appears Thursdays and Sundays. She can be reached at 578-5584, or by e-mail at ksamples@enquirer.com
