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CART Newsletter August 2010
At my request, I asked for contributions to the newsletter from our membership and fortunately received valuable input from two of our active bi-monthly meeting attendees. The content of their messages to CART is the makeup of this month’s newsletter. Ray Johnson of Chetek and one of our most active team members reminds us that the election is about 100 days away and it is time that our CART members learn about the candidates. Our participation in the election process is our opportunity to find and vote for candidates who share our same concerns. As our letter head states we are "Committed to Managed Spending," or in other words, what the people can afford to pay. Please take the time to attend any of the "meet the candidate events" and ask the hard questions concerning our state and local taxes, their plan for controlling runaway spending in Madison and Washington D.C. Take a friend, share any information on the candidates by using the web and e-mail communications and continually research your information. Remember also that if you don’t vote, you have lost your right to complain and if you sit quietly and do nothing, you will have to take whatever the future brings. From former county supervisor and CART member Rick Wuorenma, we received the following. Rick made a strong point about the federal government capping the social security payments without cost of living increases for the years 2010 and 2011. He stated that this discipline at the national level is an impossible goal in regards to spending by the Barron County Board of Supervisors. When reviewing the notes of the meetings that actively discuss the budget, two systems of accounting are used when setting revenue targets. The system of fund accounting was designed to limit dollar growth and control expenses. Whereas the revenue and expense tally system is used to account for cash flow and designed to show profit. Primarily the county continues to transfer funds from one fund or account to pay for a debt in another fund or account when they see a shortfall or a need to spend beyond the budget projection for the faulting fund. A local newspaper has called for a referendum ……."to prohibit further funds transfers" which like in past referendums has been and is likely to be ignored by the board. Primarily, this county like many others, fails to live within the budget and always relies on tax increases to offset the overruns. The objective of CART and it’s commitment to managed spending as mentioned earlier in this letter, continues to be our focal point and our reason for attending the monthly county board and executive board meetings. We have certainly been effective in making our position for the benefit of taxpayers known and with some success, we have made a difference. The challenge to making the county learn to live within the budget will be on-going when we have a majority of supervisors willing to spend on programs and issues that should be avoided during these difficult times of recession and unemployment. As always, we encourage our members to attend the county board meetings especially during the budget discussions as well as those that involve major expenditure approvals. Your Cart team ------------------------------ Contact Information: Jim Simon Co-chair 2450 10 1/16th Ave Chetek, WI 54728 (715) 859-6735 jimmyinc@citizens-tel.net Lee Peterson Co-chair 819 26th Ave Cumberland, WI 54829 (715) 822-2008 leeandy819@centurytel.ne
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