Daily News

Henderson County’s 2006-07 budget totals more than $100 million and where that money will be spent is a concern for many residents.The Henderson County Republican Men’s Club had a chance Wednesday to voice some of those concerns to new County Manager Steve Wyatt."The number one priority by far is education and the public school system," Wyatt said. "We are spending a large amount of the budget on facilities, but also paying in debt services and operations of the school."He said the second priority is social services and welfare.The state lottery was also discussed. There is a proposal to take the money from all 100 counties and let the General Assembly decide where and how the money is distributed."We need to go ahead and make applications and start getting our money," Wyatt said.The county is designing a four-year strategic plan and a 12-year capital improvement plan, he said. An online survey will be used in the process. It will ask residents about their concerns and about issues facing the county.The following is a sampling of questions Wyatt answered:Is there a way we can know how much money people in the county are spending on the lottery and how much we are getting back?There is. I’d like to look at every source of revenue from the gasoline tax and the numbers have got to be there. We just have to figure out a way to find them and find out how much gas tax money goes to Raleigh and how much comes back, how much income tax money goes to Raleigh and then the lottery would be part of that. Last year, we have had four accounting fiascoes — the EMS Building, the school board, Pardee Hospital — and now we got Blue Ridge Community College. It strikes me that there are not people in the county that are good with money.Three of the four are not county government. About the EMS Building, I wasn’t here but I take full responsibility. One of the things we need, and the Board has agreed, is an internal analyst, somebody who would look over our transaction track them and make sure that they are not only legal but also doing what the Board wants. (more…)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 29th, 2006 at 10:04 am and is filed under Daily News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.