County Executive Staff Issues Doomsday Budget Projection -- But It Is WRONG!

********************************

Important Update

Budget Director Michelle Casciato reportedly is willing to "issue an apology" to individual constituents for her obvious error in characterizing the Stewart/Candland Budget proposal as "reducing the size of the County government by a third from what it is today."

Casciato is apparently unwilling to request the news media, where most people read about her doomsday projection, to retract her obvious error.

********************************

It's the Economy, Stupid!
Ask Bill Clinton

Supervisor Pete Candland started the rhetorical ruckus by telling his colleagues on the Board of County Supervisors that the tax assessment rate should be set at $1.175 per $100 of assessed value, which would mean that county taxpayers would not pay a penny more in the average tax bill for FY 2013.  

County Chairman Corey Stewart also made it clear he agreed with Supervisor Candland and he did not support the spending level proposed by the County Executive.

PWC Budget Director Michelle Casciato

County Budget Director Michelle Casciato immediately castigated the Candland proposal as "devastating."   Casciato went on to sternly lecture Candland that his proposal would cost schools $9.8 million and the county $7.4 million in the coming year alone. 

Casciato went on to sink the nail in the Candland budget proposal with her solemn doomsday prophecy:

“As you can see, these numbers total up to $316M; you would be reducing the size of the County government by a third from what it is today.”

Only one problem with that dire projection.  Casciato's numbers just do not add up.  

There is an old adage that says if you torture statistics hard enough, they will confess to anything.  But you could waterboard the numbers Casciato and County Executive Melissa Peacor trotted out and not get a cut to county government by more than 6% to 7% if Supervisor Candland's proposal were to pass.

Now, if you were to cut the county budget by $316 million in one year, which Candland's proposal does not do, then you could get to a 1/3 cut in spending for a single year.

So why can't the County Executive and the County Budget Director just give us the facts and let the voters decide?

Why all the hyperbolic and irrational rhetoric?

In the end, Chairman Corey Stewart and Supervisor Pete Candland stood up for taxpayers and called for the brakes to be put on government spending.  Nothing irrational about that.