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Observations
August 8, 2019 |
 |
 Wingate Lassiter |
After 15 days of close but not quite,
measureable rain falls in Smithfield
I've been watching the weather radar over the past couple of weeks, hoping at least one of those nearby storms would make it to Smithfield.
But no. Plenty of storms to the northwest of us during that time. Lots more around Fayetteville and the Sandhills to the southwest. Large swaths of greens and yellows on the map to the southeast.
"Why don't they make it to Smithfield?" I asked myself over and over again. Is there some geological "fault" that works like a wall steering storms away from us?
Then, early this morning (Thursday) the breakthrough finally came. The frequent flashes of lightning woke me up. By 1:30 or so, "hard rain" had reached us at last.
The National Weather Service observatory at Johnston Regional Airport measured a total of 0.37 inches between 1 and 2 a.m. The rain gauge beside my front walkway showed 3/4 of an inch when I checked it this morning.
If you want to join me in following the Weather Service's "real time" readings of temperatures and rainfall amounts at the airport, here's the online link>
Property-tax bills come early --- and
they show where the money's going
We got our property-tax bill in the mail last Friday. No surprises therein since I knew what the total amount of county and town taxes would be when this year's tax rates were set back in June by the County Commissioners and the Smithfield Town Council.
A couple of things do impress me about the bill:
First of all, this is way sooner than we used to get the annual bill. It doesn't need to be paid until next January 6 to avoid interest charges. But it's nice to have it in hand as we budget our cash flow from now through the end of 2019.
Years ago the county actually offered a discount for early payment. Perhaps that was prompted by cash-flow issues facing our local governments in times past. Nowadays, most have healthy reserve funds to cover anticipated expenses plus contingencies without enticing us to pay our bills early.
The other thing that impresses me about this year's bill are the printed summaries of major budgeted expenditures by both the county and the town during the fiscal year that began July 1 and runs through June 30, 2020.
On the county's side, the breakdown shows that 31% of our property-tax dollars go for Education, 19% for Public Safety, 18% for Human Services, 16% for Debt Service, and so on.
On the town's side, the breakdown shows that 41.2% of our municipal taxes go for Public Safety, 25% for Public Works, 13.6% for Recreation, just 6.3% for Debt Service, and so on.
If that's not enough information for you as curious taxpayers, here are links to the complete 2019-20 budgets for both the county and the town:
Johnston County Budget here>
Town of Smithfield Budget here>
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