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Editor's note: Halifax County Commissioner Rives Manning responded Saturday to criticisms made of him and Vernon Bryant at a rally Thursday. His response is published here as written with only corrections for style.
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It was with interest that I read the rrspin article Merger proponents to target elected officials.
As I understood from the original announcements of the event it was to mark the two-year anniversary of the release of the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights report, not a press conference to vilify and attack elected officials, especially Vernon Bryant and myself, Rives Manning.
A number of years ago, the Halifax County Schools were ranked much higher than they are now. There has been a big slide toward the bottom of the list over the last 15 or so years. During this time, there have been several different superintendents; there have been several different finance officers and according to their audits, there have been several million dollars that have been "unaccounted" for. There has been one constant during this "Slide" and that is there are several of the current School Board members who have been along for the ride (slide).
Under the present North Carolina General Statutes, if the County Commissioners want to merge/consolidate two or more school districts and if any one district has a supplemental school tax the new Merged/consolidated district would have a Supplemental School Tax. In other words, since Weldon Schools and the Roanoke Rapids Graded School District have Supplemental School Taxes (Halifax County School district does not have a supplemental school tax) the new Halifax County merged/ consolidated school district would have a Supplemental School Tax.
Those in the old Roanoke Rapids GSD would probably not have an increase or a very small one; those in the old Weldon District might have a 4 cent increase; those outside those two districts (in the old Halifax County School district) would have at least a 21 cents per hundred dollars increase in your property tax rate. (The current Halifax County property tax rate is 68 cents per hundred)
In early 2012, the Halifax County School Board requested the Halifax County Commissioners put the Supplemental School Tax for the Halifax County School District on the May 2012 ballot. The Commissioners complied and it was on the ballot of the May 2012 Primary. Only the voters of the Halifax County School District voted and the results were 28 percent for and 72 percent against a Supplemental School tax.
The School Boards are charged with educating the children in their districts. They were elected to account for the funds in their system, teach the children and maintain the buildings and equipment. If they are not doing a good job of it, this is their failure.
I deal in facts. The Halifax County Commissioners and County Government have run a "tight ship" and have accounted for the money. When Mr. Pierce and I came on in 2002, the fund balance was low and we ended up having to increase taxes in 2003. Since then, we haven't had a Property Tax Rate increase, and we lowered the rate substantially following re-evaluations in 2007.
I will encourage any resident of Halifax County, who wants to make a change in the elected officials to file, campaign and let the voters decide if they think your ideas are the best for Halifax County and the Halifax County citizens.
In 2014, the seats of three Halifax County Commissioners will be up for election, they are Mr. Pierce's seat; Manning's seat and Mr. Bryant's seat. Also there will be the seats of several of the Halifax County School Board members.
