See what happens when you get to the heart of Huntington?
Cabell County’s parks and libraries are enjoying a wave of support that threatens to bankrupt financially reckless Superintendent Ryan Saxe and the Cabell Board of Education.
The BOE expects voters to have bad memories when they go to the polls on May 14. And frankly, they have good reason for that. As the saying goes, “we often don’t remember in November.” But voters will remember this overtax debacle in May. After everything that has happened in the last seven months, how could anyone forget?
In this time of division, there is little that brings both sides of the political spectrum together. This is an example of that. In fact, both the Cabell County Democratic Executive Committee and Cabell County Republicans have jointly decided to encourage a no vote on May 14 against any excessive levy that excludes adequate funding for the Cabell County Public Library and the Greater Huntington Parks and Recreation District. Longtime Delegate Matthew Rohrbach expects the levy to “fail overwhelmingly.” He’s right. And to reiterate the bipartisan position here: Del. Rohrbach and I are far apart on a whole host of issues.
This issue has brought the entire community together to address the question of what our parks and libraries mean to us. What would Huntington be without them? Our parks and libraries are the cultural, artistic and recreational center of the city. They are vital to our education system and our economy. And they provide tremendous benefits to our physical and mental health and well-being. Even better, their many benefits benefit everyone, regardless of age or background. We love our parks and libraries, and I’m glad how much we’ve shown that over the past seven months.
We don’t love our BOE, though. Their actions in the summer of 2023 were underhanded and devious. To say they were destitute stewards of our money is an understatement. Moreover, their dealings with the community since then have been disparaging and controversial.
I don’t know how the BOE doesn’t realize how much damage has been done, but their current half-hearted “let’s move on” tour isn’t going to work. In fact, it seems to be making things much worse. When you lose the respect of your constituents, it’s very tough to win it back.
You cannot blame the voters for choosing the “nuclear option” and voting against the excessive tax on May 14. That is the fault of the superintendent and the board. They knew from the beginning that this tax in its current form does not have the necessary support of the population and the voters.
I hope that this summer, when the dust settles, the Superintendent and Board can pick up the pieces, listen to their constituents, and craft a better, fairer surplus levy that includes full funding for parks and libraries that can be on the ballot in November and gain the support of voters. If they are not up to the task, perhaps the Superintendent and Board members should resign. There are many people in the community who are willing to stand up for our children and Cabell County.
