This afternoon, the planned discussion of County Commissioner Brian Bitner and County Auditor Mark Splonskowski ended up not happening.
Guest host Trent Loos explained in the audio above.
More importantly, the public had a chance to speak up about what is happening in Burleigh County.
Factchecking
Trent made one error regarding the letter that the auditor/treasurer sent out about property taxes going up earlier in the summer.
That letter was required by state law to go out.
August 31
County treasurer provides to the owner of each parcel of taxable property with a property tax amount of $100 or more, a written notice containing information regarding the district budget, true and full value of the owner’s property, and changes in estimated tax and tax levies. (NDCC §57-15-02.2(2))
We’ll give Trent a break on this one since he is from Nebraska, and does not know how we do things around here. 😁
The issues he brought up were explained in this September 12th, 2024 article with the video of the Burleigh County Commission re-learning how mill levies and valuations work:
Elected Officials Should Pay Attention
Since the plan for a discussion with the insiders fell apart, the feedback from the callers was strong because questions are still going unanswered.
One section of the show got pretty heated, and elected officials should listen to that section below if they don’t listen to the whole thing - it sums up the mood of the public and what elected officials need to understand about their own voters (it’s only 16 minutes long):
The average citizen does not know that local boards and committees that are not elected don’t get paid. Nor do they seem to understand that governments have operating funds that don’t get spent right away.
Which is ironic, since we hear people talk about “running government like a business”. Businesses have operating funds and reserves, and the interest from those reserves that government has decreases the need for taxes.
Elected officials have done a poor job of explaining to people how their government actually works!
The public is highly suspicious of government, and rightly so, elected officials need to do a better job of explaining how things work to the public. As does the media, for that matter.
Share this post