Dear Editor:
The letter from Tom Thompson ( April 21, 2022 ) appears to be a politically motivated revision of history.
First, as Mr. Thompson is aware, the County Budget is approved by the entire Board of Commissioners and not by the Chairman alone. In fact the District Commissioners have a greater influence over the budget than the Chairman, who only has one vote.
Second, Mr. Thompson states that in the first year that I served as Chairman (2013) the BOC cut the funding for Putnam General Hospital (PGH) by $50,000. In fact the budget for 2013, including the cut to PGH, was approved in 2012 under Mr. Thompson’s chairmanship.
In order to provide a more complete picture of the BOC budget, I would point out that in the last three years of Mr. Thompson’s chairmanship the BOC spent over $7.8 million of the County reserve in order to balance the budget. This put the County on a path to bankruptcy and forced the BOC to severely control spending. The reduction in funding for PGH, from $500,000 to $400,000 per year, was part of the spending control. That level of support was maintained for the remainder of my term in office. The budget increases alluded to by Mr. Thompson were largely for Public Safety, EMS and minimal increases in employee salaries; all needed to provide the services expected by the County residents..
It is unclear to me what light Mr. Thompson thinks that I have finally seen since I have been a supporter of PGH since Ken Rammage and I started the mailing list for donations to the PGH Foundation over 25 years ago and have promoted the Georgia Heart program through presentations to various groups including Kiwanis and Rotary since the start of that program.
Finally I would like to thank all of the Constitutional Officers, Department Heads and employees for their patience and support while the BOC sought to keep the County solvent during my tenure as Chairman.
Stephen Hersey
Former Chairman,
Candidate for Re-election