A round of
applause, please
The Board of Supervisors is holding the line on the budget for the coming fiscal year, and deserves credit for doing so. With a proposed operating budget increase of just under 2 percent, the proposed spending schedule is essentially "flat" - good news for county taxpayers at a time when living expenses are inflating rapidly.
While the change of direction is welcome, and congratulations are in order and sincere, it's important to keep matters in perspective. During the past four years, Isle of Wight's budget, including education, has increased 52 percent. That's a very significant increase and has had an impact on the collective pocketbooks of county taxpayers.
During those years, the county has hired a number of people, expanded its departments and, in some instances, been faced with the same unavoidable increases faced by individuals and businesses.
Some of those changes have been driven by special interests - people who are demanding a greater level of services than the rural population that once inhabited the county. Some have been in response to mandates by the federal and state governments, which are famous - or infamous - for their practice of passing down mandates for more regulation or services without sending along the money needed to fund the new demands.
Collectively, though, it cannot be ignored that county government has expanded far more rapidly than a combination of inflation and our population might have dictated, and certainly faster than most people's income. What has emerged is a county government far different - in some ways better, in other ways, arguably not - than its historic roots.
Difficult economic times challenge individuals and businesses to become more focused in their spending - to use available resources as wisely as possible and to make every dollar count. Can local government do the same?
The real test will come next year, and the following. That's when we will know whether this more conservative approach to spending will continue or be a temporary phenomenon. In the meantime, it's nice to be given a break for at least the coming year.

Board deserves more,
but this year?
It was a little surprising, in a year when the Board of Supervisors is demanding its departments to hold the line on expenses and, for the most part, to return zero-growth budget requests, that the supervisors would budget for what can only be described as a significant increase in their own salaries.
The budget calls for supervisors, now drawing a $7,722 stipend each year, to begin drawing $11,402, with the chairman drawing $13,200.
Like all budget matters, this too must be kept in perspective. Put simply, the pay supervisors receive doesn't begin to compensate them for their time, and an increase is certainly in order.
A little political background might also be instructive, though.
State law sets supervisor salaries, based on the county population, and Isle of Wight's boards have historically used that admittedly low scale for setting theirs.
However, a companion Code section allows the supervisors to set their pay at any level they want - or dare. And it's that section which now may be used to set the Isle of Wight board's pay. The rub is that the General Assembly wisely (the Assembly can occasionally be wise) only gives supervisors that authority during the calendar year of their election. The next supervisor election is November 2009, so the supervisors can budget for an increase for planning purposes, as they are now doing, but presumably can't actually vote themselves a raise until after Jan. 1 of next year.
Interestingly, 2009 may be the "safest" year for them to do so in the near future. Only two seats - Windsor and Hardy - will be available. Hardy Supervisor James Brown has already said he plans to retire next year, and there has been speculation that Windsor's Tom Wright may also, though he has not said so. Even if he runs, only one supervisor would be immediately vulnerable next year to criticism over a pay raise, so 2009 may be the politically safest year this could happen.
Still, with all county departments asked to hold the line, you have to wonder if budgeting a 48 percent pay increase for themselves - no matter how low their current pay - is a bit tone deaf.