Trending – People Have the Power to Cast Informed Vote
By Patti Hamilton
“I awakened to the cry
that people have the power
to redeem the work of fools
upon the meek the graces shower
it’s decreed the people rule.”
“People Have the Power” was co-written by Patti Smith and her husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith (Fred was a member of the MC5 and a West Virginia native. He was born in Lincoln County and has been inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame). I borrowed the title because voting is definitely an act of power by the people who vote.
I spent twenty years as Executive Director of the WV Association of Counties, representing our county constitutional officers: Commissioners, County Clerks, Circuit Clerks, Sheriffs, Assessors, and Prosecuting Attorneys. Like our statewide constitutional officers (treasurer, auditor, secretary of state, attorney general, agriculture commissioner, and governor), the offices are established in the State Constitution.
County officials can and do administer their offices in a nonpartisan way. Their service to the public is not and cannot be based on one’s party affiliation or political disagreement.
During my twenty years, as an organization we worked on a variety of issues and not once was an issue discussed on a partisan basis. It was either good for county government, good for a particular office of county government, or not needed or not helpful to county government. In fact, all six groups of county officials had to agree on an issue before we decided to support or oppose. One no vote as a group was a veto, just like the United Nations.
The late Tip O’Neill, Speaker of the House of Representatives, famously said (or at least he made the quote famous), “All politics is local.” I think that phrase used to be true, but national issues are creeping into local and state politics and government in ways that make no sense. A candidate for a statewide office says in an ad that he will “fight back” against immigration, although the office he’s running for has no authority or role in immigration policy. Some local and state legislature candidates are making national issues part of their campaign talking points rather than addressing what they will do with the actual authority the office gives them.
The county government offices of County Clerk, Circuit Clerk, Sheriff, Assessor, and Prosecuting Attorney are full-time positions and are prohibited by law from holding other employment. (This does not apply to County Commissioners who are specifically part-time and allowed other full-time employment by law). The five elected full-time officials in each county administer their office. They and their staff have specific duties set forth in statute and in the state Constitution. Except for prosecuting attorneys, there are no qualifications for the office except county residence. There is very important work to be done that has absolutely nothing to do with partisan politics or the party with which the official is affiliated.
While a county government candidate’s party affiliation may designate a certain trait or belief to a voter, it, in fact, has little or nothing to do with the responsibilities they will be expected to fulfill. Qualifications matter. Experience is helpful. Understanding the duties and the limitations of the office is necessary. The ability to administer an office and employees is vital to the success of the county official. Whether they have a “D” or an “R” after their name on the ballot is of little consequence to the variety of duties they will face.
The Assessor is responsible for assessing our real and personal property taxes on a regular basis. It is the primary source of revenue for county government. The Sheriff has both law enforcement and administrative tax collection duties. The Sheriff is not required to be a certified law enforcement officer. The Circuit Clerk is our keeper of Court records for circuit courts, magistrates, and family courts. The County Clerk is the record-keeper for the county and its citizens, including deeds, probate, birth certificates, and marriage licenses. They are also the chief election official of the county and administer all elections. The prosecuting attorney is responsible for criminal prosecutions as well as cases of abuse and neglect. They have the authority of prosecutorial discretion for determining what cases to prosecute.
That is a very brief summary of just some of the responsibilities of the full-time jobs of county government. While a county official’s party and own belief system may affect how they do their job, their political party does not allow them to refuse to perform duties or add duties for which they have no authority. Their authority is found in statute and the State Constitution, not political party. They are also expected to stay within their budget as provided by the County Commission and must be a capable office administrator, whether they have five or twenty-five employees. Again, these are not attributes that are determined by party. They are determined by a candidate’s qualifications and experience.
We hear people say that “my vote doesn’t count,” which is certainly not true in a local government election. Our county government is an integral part of our communities and those who run for these full-time positions deserve thoughtful consideration based on the responsibilities they must fulfill.
To blindly vote for the party designation is a disservice to the job and to the county. People have the power to cast an informed vote.
– Hamilton is the former executive director of the West Virginia Association of Counties.
OPINION – Big Changes to State Education Funding Needed
By Richard Duncan, Ph.D.
It is amazing how over the course of just one week we can go from reports of two dozen local schools closing to pitches for $250 million in new schools, additions, and renovations. It’s enough to make anyone wonder – how can we be short so many millions to keep our small, community schools open yet be ready to spend many more millions on others?
Though some have tried to pin the blame on school choice, while others point to inefficiencies in local school systems, the truth is, as always, somewhere else entirely.
To be clear, both are right. School choice has cost public schools funding and our public school system is wildly inefficient.
But both are also wrong. The number of students lost to population decline far outpaces those who participate in choice programs, which have failed to significantly impact a majority of the state. And even if each and every local school and district administrator were an expert in human relations, facility maintenance, network infrastructure, nutrition, mass transit, and legal matters (oh, and education), our state’s laws and policies simply don’t allow for local efficiency or innovation in operations beyond the occasional “shared service” or “superintendent who takes on three other roles at the same time.”
The true culprit here is rooted in our collective aversion to actually changing how we do things. Population dropped in communities all over West Virginia when we failed to adapt to changing economic conditions throughout the latter half of the last century. In spite of that hard lesson, we continue to offer only small tweaks to the system instead of taking a critical look at what meaningful changes can prevent the outcomes we’ve seen over and over again.
Whether a child is enrolled in a public school or receives the Hope Scholarship, the funding for that child comes from the same, outdated source – the State Aid Formula. This formula has done more to drive consolidations and closures than any law or policy over the past four decades.
It’s not rocket science (trust me). If counties are funded on the number of students enrolled with no weight on what grade levels they serve or how many schools are in that county, then the most efficient setup would be for each county to eventually consolidate all of their local schools into one, county-wide school. Why spread the funding out when having more, local schools is penalized by adding overhead and staffing with no increase in funding?
The formula also provides very little to cover basic maintenance costs for those school facilities. If your county (like mine) does not have a school excess levy, then you are forced to choose over and over which necessary expenses you will go without this year just so you can keep as many classrooms open and buses on the road as possible. Most of our state school facilities funding then goes to brand-new schools and major renovations, and we recycle and repeat.
If we truly want to see local community schools thrive again in our state, then we need to make significant changes to how we approach education funding. A more school-based formula like the one I studied in 2020 is not only possible, it could be crafted to eliminate structural inefficiencies and help protect local schools at little to no cost increase to the state.
We need to fund schools not systems, encourage stewardship of local school buildings, and empower communities to focus on educating their kids instead of operating antiquated systems. If not, the coming move to “consolidate” counties may only further drive the extinction of local, community schools when county lines no longer limit how many schools a single district can close.
Dr. Richard Duncan is the Superintendent of Schools in Roane County, West Virginia. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.
Can government really be more efficient?
December 3, 2024 – 12:49 am
Finding ways to run government more efficiently is all the rage these days.
President-elect Donald Trump has charged Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with cutting federal spending. The pair said in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, “Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs.”
West Virginia Governor-elect Patrick Morrisey said repeatedly during the campaign that there are savings to be had in state government. “I would begin on day one with an audit of all the state agencies to try to get to the bottom of how we can find efficiencies,” Morrisey said during a pre-election debate.
Government, by nature, is not efficient. Agencies do not have to make a profit, so there is no motivation to be economical. As the late politician Eugene McCarthy said, “The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.”
The challenge for Musk and Ramaswamy is finding savings where it really counts. They say they will start with all the federal regulations that carry with them administrators and spending. As CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria wrote, “There are more than 180,000 pages of federal regulations. Surely it’s worth taking a closer look at them and retiring many.”
But the real money is in mandatory programs. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and unemployment insurance make up 60 percent of the federal budget. Defense, which is discretionary, is about 13 percent. Interest on the debt is another ten percent. Also, that spending is approved by Congress so it will be hard for Musk and Ramaswamy to get their hands on it.
But they deserve their shot. Federal spending IS out of control. The federal government spent $6.75 trillion this past fiscal year, nearly $2 trillion more than it collected in taxes. The federal debt is $36 trillion and growing by the second.
By contrast, West Virginia state government, by law, cannot run a deficit so spending cannot exceed revenue. However, that does not mean state government is operating like a well-oiled machine.
But, just like the federal government, the difficulty is in finding substantial operational savings. The general revenue budget for this fiscal year is $5 billion. Public education takes up the biggest chunk at $2.3 billion, higher ed gets $473 million, Health and Human Services another $844 million, health facilities $218 million, corrections, jails, prisons, State Police and all Homeland Security about $529 million.
Are there savings there? Probably, but finding it and getting lawmakers to go along with substantive cuts will be difficult. Spending is often associated with constituent groups who can and will pressure lawmakers.
Just like the Trump administration, the Governor-elect Morrisey deserves his chance to find significant savings, but it won’t be easy.
Can government really be more efficient?
First Person
Opinion, WVPA Sharing
COLUMN: Find your diamonds
By Greg Kozera, Shale Crescent USA
This week Lynnda and I attended an economic development, climate and energy conference held in Oil City and Titusville, PA the birthplace of the commercial oil industry. For decades the world oil price was set at the building where we ate lunch on Monday in Oil City. I was the closing keynote speaker on Monday sharing the benefits of the Shale Crescent USA region. Usually, I use only my own stories when speaking. I opened with this story because it was so appropriate. You may find it helpful. It’s a true story in the book Acres of Diamonds by Russell H. Conwell.
Back in the 17th century there lived not far from the River Indus a Persian by the name of Ali Hafed. Ali owned a very large farm with orchards, grain fields and gardens. He was contented and wealthy. One day a visitor told him about diamonds. With a handful of diamonds, he could purchase a country. With a diamond mine he could place his children upon thrones through the influence of great wealth.
When Ali Hafed heard about diamonds and how much they were worth, he became discontented. He felt poor compared to diamonds and wanted to be rich. Ali sold his farm, left his family with a neighbor and went off in search of diamonds. After several years, failing to find diamonds, he was broke and in rags. In despair he cast himself into the sea off the coast of Spain and died.
https://wvpress.org/opinion/column-find-your-diamonds/
Note: Opinions expressed are solely those of the contributors unless noted otherwise. It is the policy of Chop Wood, Carry Water Enterprises LLC, and this newsletter https://chopwoodcarrywaterllc.com/, to include a broad array of thought and opinion.