In another marathon session—nearly six hours long—the County presented its proposed budget. As usual, the largest increases were in salaries and benefits.

The presentation referenced a 115-page document and was scheduled during normal work hours, beginning at 9:00 a.m.—convenient for County staff and ensuring that most taxpayers could not attend. This is no accident. These extended sessions act as a kind of indoctrination process: department heads outline “challenges,” highlight their “great work,” and repeat phrases like “this is an expensive business” and “we have no choice.” By the end, the Board appears less like a supervisory body and more like a passive audience simply absorbing a narrative.

Let’s be blunt: is a department head ever going to say, “We have more than we need” or “We could accomplish this with fewer employees”? Never. Their self-interest is baked in. And yet the Board seems willing to absorb it all, nodding along with requests with near-zero pushback. This is not oversight. This is abdication.

Consider the numbers from a public source—> openthbooks.com: from 2017 to 2024, the number of Highland County administrative employees rose from 35 to 47, while salaries jumped from $1,181,239 to $2,070,831—a 75% increase in a county whose population is largely static. Inflation during that 7-year period was roughly 28%. Even accounting for that, salary increases outpaced inflation nearly threefold. Add in benefits, which nearly double employment costs, and the real growth is staggering.

Note: Highland County Salary Data can be found at → https://www.openthebooks.com/virginia/ then scroll to Highland County.

Yet during the latest presentation, comments were made such as, “we’re already locked in” and “how much is one cent on the real estate tax rate?” The answer: $82,600. This is the mindset of a Board that has abandoned judgment and defaulted to compulsion: if we can squeeze more from taxpayers, we will.

Last year’s 15.9% real estate tax increase should have set off alarm bells. Instead, the pattern repeats: an extended budget work session where the public cannot speak, followed by a hearing where objections are politely noted—and ignored. In roughly 40 minutes of the public hearing last year, not a single person supported the increase, yet it passed anyway. By the time the public hearing occurs, the outcome is pre-decided.

This is not budgeting. Budgeting is about priorities, limits, and saying no. What we are seeing is escalation: more staff, more pay, more benefits—funded by taxpayers already overburdened.

The part-time Board of Supervisors is failing us. Showing up and presiding over meetings is not leadership. Supervising staff, reviewing data, questioning assumptions, and making difficult decisions—that is the job. Instead, the Board is being led around by the very departments it is supposed to supervise. They are exhausted by their own passivity or simply unwilling to do the work. Either way, taxpayers lose.

Highland County cannot sustain this pattern. Without serious fiscal oversight—before the budget process is complete—we are likely to see another tax increase far higher than necessary. The most severe consequences will fall on the farmers, small businesses, and residents who can least afford it.

We are trapped in a multi-year cycle of attempts to add more staff, rubber-stamping budgets, excessive spending, and ever-growing tax bills and service fees. This is not speculation; it is as predictable as it is avoidable—if the Board would simply own up to its responsibilities before it’s too late.