STORMWATER FEE HAS ARRIVED

On Tuesday, January 6, 2009 the Oldham County Fiscal Court made a New Year’s resolution – to take more money from the people. This came as a surprise to nobody that I know. It was just business as usual.

The final rate arrived at by the court was significantly lower than some of the rates that were bantered about initially. However, it is more than is necessary. Judge Murner used a very classical approach to achieve his goal; he started out asking for the universe and settled for one planet thereby making people believe that they were fortunate. The final fee proposal that was presented by finance committee chairman Steve Church was obviously discussed prior to the meeting as Murner had the figures before him with the average monthly fee already figured out. The presentation was well rehearsed, as was the presentation of the Stormwater district chairman, Kevin Eldridge. All in all it was quite a “dog and pony” show.

Several people complained about the fact that the developers were not being assessed any additional fees to support this program even though they are the biggest culprits in this game. Magistrate Steve Church then reckoned that the developers would just pass the additional charges on to new homebuyers and the young people wouldn’t be able to afford to come to Oldham County. In other words, the present residents of the county should absorb the developers’ cost of this program in order that they could continue to maintain their profit margins. Have you ever heard such hogwash? However, this rationalization coming from Church should not surprise you when you understand that he received campaign funding from the Homebuilders Association and developers. Of course Albert Harrison, who is a probable candidate for Property Valuation Administrator, and Magistrate David Voegele came to the defense of the developers during the fiscal court meeting of January 20, 2007. As I have previously stated on this site I expect Voegele to be a candidate for county judge in 2010 and he would like to have the support of the developers. As I previously indicated, I expect that the developers will support Kevin Eldridge. Must give Voegele credit though, he keeps hoping that they will support him.

It seems as though every fiscal court meeting has some discussion about a new fee or tax. Sometimes I believe that the people would be better off to give fiscal court members a bonus to just stay away and do nothing. That would be less costly for the people. Hopefully the Stormwater rates can be forgotten for a year. Wonder what will be next.