Not in the mood: Wayne County commissioners have no plans to raise taxes

Joe Daughtery, the chairman of the Wayne County Board of Commissioners, says the commissioners are in no mood to raise taxes this year.

That strikes us as good news. We are not in the mood to pay higher taxes.

The county has spent what it can on new schools for now, Daughtery said, and is currently tapped out. He made his statements at a recent joint meeting of commissioners and school officials.

Daughtery said that commissioners want good schools for the county, that they are essential to its future. But he said school officials will have to be flexible as the county works to find ways to improve school facilities.

It will take some complex money juggling, county officials said, to come up with the necessary money to keep improving the schools -- and they said that they are prepared to work with the county school board to do just that.

There are many needs in the schools that have to be addressed, to be sure, especially Meadow Lane Elementary School. But we believe it can be done without raising taxes, if those people in charge of the money will be creative, as they have shown in the past that they can be.

Published in Editorials on May 9, 2016 11:00 AM