By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

GREAT MILLS — Senator Roy Dyson said in an interview on Friday that he will not support expanding the borrowing authority of the St. Mary’s Commissioners by another $25 million.

"The Board already has the ability to deepen the debt of the taxpayers by $44 million," said Dyson. "To add further debt on the public, where it is already over $100 million adds up to yet another tax hike, and I won’t be a party to such an action when we face dire economic times. Where is the money going to come from if the Board continues on a course to build an extravagant library, moving it out of town in direct contravention to Smart Growth policies, which would cause the Town of Leonardtown to have to expand, add more sewer capacity, add more commercial growth outside of the Town and make the downtown’s future more problematic. Where does it end?"

Dyson’s decision to block a request by the St. Mary’s Commissioners, where they have pushed on a 4-1 basis, with Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) the only dissenting vote, will force the Board to have to prioritize their existing spending plans and put the $13 million library plan, complete with atrium, café and child care facility, ahead of renovations to schools, an addition to the jail and asphalt overlays.

In short, what Dyson has done is to protect the public from a library building located outside of Leonardtown on the controversial Hayden Farm, which was bought for $5.3 million when it appraised for about half that amount.

"Nothing good comes from decisions to spend money made at public hearings held on Christmas Eve, which is an obvious attempt to limit public participation," said Dyson. "If it was such a good deal, why wouldn’t they want the public in on the deal?"

Dyson was the original sponsor of the Open Meetings Act which governs public meetings in St. Mary’s County, a law which is more stringent than the state law.

"We have an excellent library now and if it was going to be moved, which I don’t see the need, it should remain in Leonardtown," said Dyson. "But we are in the middle of extraordinary economic times and this is not the time to venture off on overly-ambitious spending plans when we don’t know what the final bill will be or who will pay it. I can tell you one thing is for sure, people are hurting, businesses are being overtaxed and over regulated."

"I was asked by the county this week if someone from my family’s business was going to participate in a round table discussion on how to help small businesses," said Dyson, "and I told them that frankly, I can’t envision my brother taking the time away from the store to sit around a table and tell them the obvious: lower taxes and cut regulations if you want to help small business."

"People are losing their jobs and their taxes are going up, what kind of sense does that make?" said Dyson.

"The Commissioners need a reality check and this is it: NO, they can’t have the authority to borrow any more money and cause taxes to go up for the next Board of Commissioners when the bill comes due," said Dyson.

"We don’t even know for sure that we need this building, I have been told by many people in the county that the existing library is fine, that it is comfortable and by God, its paid for," said Dyson. "All of the younger generation are going online and using computers and I am told that one man has checked out over 200 items from the library in the past year and a half and never went into the building. He did it all online."

"We have an entire generation that is getting their information in a very different way and besides the question of how we are going to pay for a library which a small committee of people decided we were going to have, there is the question of does a much larger building built outside of town really fill the need for the future?" said Dyson. "I meet with dozens of people in this county every day and I can tell you, people not only refuse to pay higher taxes, they just can’t. The well is dry, there is no more money coming from the state government, we can expect even more cuts and the county will have to find many ways to cut spending and to borrow more now is truly one of the most insane proposals I have heard in a long time."

"I will not support anything that equates to higher taxes and I will not support expanding the borrowing authority of the county," said Dyson.

In a similar decision in 1995, Dyson blocked the Board from spending $23 million on a new Judicial Palace destined to be built at the Leonard Hall Governmental Center.

On the last day of the General Assembly session, Dyson killed the county’s bond bill and sent the Board scrambling for a new plan.

As a result, the Town of Leonardtown joined by Jarboe and others showed that there was ample parking in the town and rallied supporters to the cause of renovating and expanding the historic 1901 Circuit Courthouse, much to the consternation of Judge John Hanson Briscoe, who had ushered through a Space Needs Study which would have abandoned the old courthouse.

Finally, six months after Dyson killed the bond bill, the Board voted 3-2 to keep the courthouse, expand it and the rest is history. The cost of keeping the old courthouse and expanding it was about half of what liberal Republicans Paul Chesser and Barbara Thompson were adamant to accomplish. Commissioners Chris Brugman and Frances Eagan joined Jarboe in keeping the courthouse in the center of Leonardtown.

After that decision was made, Leonardtown soon became rejuvenated to its present condition of vitality. Even now, there in the middle of economic distress, Leonardtown is still faring pretty well. Without the courthouse in the downtown, there would likely by tumbleweeds blowing through the streets.

The PNC Bank has all but closed the old main office of the First National Bank of St. Mary’s and the building would make an excellent library as it is already handicapped accessible.

But even a move to lease another facility worries Dyson.

"We need to watch every penny and I am very uncomfortable in having to lecture my fellow Democrats, but they really need to understand the pain the public is going through," said Dyson.

Dyson has never supported a tax increase and he said on Friday, he is not going to start now.

"Families are making hard choices and decisions, so must Government," said Sen. Dyson.