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Dunbar Deceives
Posted
9-11-2007
So George Dunbar is going to question the
county's financial status? His misrepresentations are either a
lack of understanding of the complexities of the county's budget
or a deliberate attempt to deceive. His claim that we spend more
each year is technically true, but the greatest growth has been
in the area of human services, and that funding comes almost in
its entirety from either the Commonwealth or the federal
government. We serve more people, and the cost of those services
goes up.
As a percentage of the overall budget, property
taxes (basically our only way of generating revenues) continue
to decline. Property taxes are roughly 22 percent of the overall
budget, and we must use that 22 percent to plug all the holes of
the plethora of mandated services we provide. County real estate
taxes have only been increased once in my time in office for
operating purposes. And the relatively low county taxes are one
reason so many people, like Mr. Dunbar, move here from Allegheny
County.
Mr. Dunbar's claim that our debt service
payments will rise dramatically in 10 years is just plain wrong.
Money is being placed in escrow accounts now to cover a
temporary increase, and by 2023 debt service payments will be
$7.3 million -- $3 million less than we pay right now.
But I'm wondering why Mr. Dunbar even wants to
bring up the issue of financial management considering the only
professional job he lists on his resume ultimately ended in
bankruptcy. He claims that as Chief Financial Officer of Wright
Industries he oversaw all financial decisions and operations for
one of "Pittsburgh's 50 fastest growing companies". What Mr.
Dunbar doesn't say is that after he left, the company declared
bankruptcy. The company owed the federal, state and local
government hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes incurred on
Mr. Dunbar's watch. It also owes a variety of other creditors
millions of dollars, including companies from our county, labor
unions where he didn't pay their healthcare and pension
contributions, and a variety of other businesses, large and
small.
Now, Mr. Dunbar will argue that the bankruptcy
was filed after he left, but court documents clearly show debts
were from the period Dunbar claims to have been responsible for
the day-to-day operations of "one of Pittsburgh's 50 fastest
growing companies". My question to Mr. Dunbar is: "Just what
were you growing, a business that is on strong financial footing
or one that collapsed in bankruptcy?" The filing in U.S.
Bankruptcy Court answers that.
We've worked hard to make the tough decisions
that have often left us unpopular with others in county
government, and some of those decisions won't necessarily
benefit us immediately. But we are laying a sound foundation for
the future. One thing I'm certain of is that Westmoreland
County's financial status won't benefit from Dunbar's practices
if he has the opportunity to manage as he did at Wright
Industries.
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