Dissatisfied residents run for Caldwell seats

Nearly a dozen join incumbents in commissioners race; most cite 22% property tax hike

Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

Rumblings of dissatisfaction with commissioners in Caldwell County have appeared for months on giant billboards along U.S. 321, on yard signs and on Internet discussion boards.

But last week, nearly a dozen Caldwell residents decided that simply complaining about the board's actions wasn't enough and decided to run for one of three open commission seats.

Challengers say they are frustrated with decisions made by commissioners in the last year, ranging from the county manager's salary to building renovations. Though they point to several recent missteps by the board, most challengers agree that the biggest reason they're running is this year's 22.2 percent hike in property taxes.

"That's too much at one time," said Clay B. Bollinger, a retired business owner from Hudson who filed on the first day. "They just have no business (increasing taxes) on people who are struggling already."

Eleven residents - including incumbents Faye Higgins and John Thuss - flooded the Caldwell County Board of Elections on Monday, the first day they were legally allowed to file for the May 6 primary, to join the race.

The surge is unusual, said elections Director Sandy Rich, but this year it wasn't a surprise. "We heard rumors that we were going to have a number of people coming in because of the tax increase," she said. "And sure enough, they came."

All but one candidate filed to run within the first hour and 15 minutes. Two more people have joined the race since, and Rich said she expects several more to file before the Feb. 29 deadline.

The top three vote-getters from each party will advance to the November general election. Commissioner Herb Greene's seat is also open. Greene, who helped facilitate bringing Google to Lenoir, has said he will not run.

"There's a lot of people signing up now because they think we've gone too far into the 21st century," Greene said, "and they'll like to take us back to the 20th century, when it was a little more comfortable."

Commissioners originally considered an 18.5 percent tax increase when they were working on the budget in June but said they were concerned that residents still struggling with unemployment and low wages might not have been able to handle the sharp hike.

Amid those worries, however, the board decided against the 18.5 percent hike and actually raised the increase even more - to 22.2 percent - to fund a $77.5 million operating budget.

Neither Thuss nor Higgins said they were surprised by the surge of residents deciding to run and acknowledged that the tax increase likely encouraged more people to join the race.

"The county is economically depressed," said Higgins, who voted against the tax increase, "and there's always going to be second-guessing on those decisions."

Thuss defended the increase, citing demands passed down from the federal and state governments and projects meant to bolster economic growth and provide educational opportunities in the county.

"The commissioners ... are obligated to do what is best based on a good, sound financial basis," he said. "You don't cut taxes to get votes. That's a political game, and that is irresponsible."
But the tax increase, challengers say, isn't the only reason they've decided to run.

One of the new candidates is Barbara Weiller, who previously served on the Caldwell County Board of Education, worked in banking for more than 20 years and spent another 20 years as an accountant. Commissioners, she said, have overlooked fiscal responsibility and failed to listen to residents' concerns about the economy and county spending.

Some of the decisions the board has made recently, including building a new $12.5 million home for the Department of Social Services and the Health Department, didn't rely enough on the input of residents, Weiller said.

"With the way our economy is and the high unemployment rates, that's not responsible," she said.

For Bollinger, who said he is running in a block with Ben Griffin and Rob Bratcher, the new DSS and Health Department building and other construction projects, including the courthouse and county offices renovations, are reflections that commissioners "aren't looking down the road."

"There's no long-range budget," he said. "They are just reacting from year to year."

Thuss, however, said commissioners have not only been looking at the budget beyond 2008, but are looking at ways to improve life in Caldwell.

"I do what I feel is best for the citizens of this county," he said. And if that is not what they want, I have an R.V. I'll get in and boogie out of here."


Who has filed?

Republicans
Clay B. Bollinger of Granite Falls
Rob Bratcher of Lenoir
Steven Fekete Jr. of Lenoir
Ben Griffin of Lenoir
Faye R. Higgins of Lenoir (i)
Bill Oxford of Lenoir
John W. Thuss of Lenoir (i)
Arnold Wilson of Granite Falls

Democrats
L.C. Coonse of Granite Falls
Randy Church of Lenoir
Jerry Cecil Coffey of Lenoir
Timothy Shore of Hudson
Barbara Weiller of Lenoir


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