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Bargain
government
On the next page of our paper, readers will find
an interesting comparison of salaries paid to
local government officials in Rappahannock County and six nearby counties. The chart is a reminder that taxpayers in this county get about as much government as they want, at a bargain price.
One of the beauties of Rappahannock County is that local government remains on a small, human scale. As a rural county of only 7,000-some souls, we don't need or want much bureaucracy, but we need and want competency, efficiency, dedication and good service in government. And that's what we get - generally at a lower price tag than any other local jurisdiction.
The figures show that most of our county government officials are just about the lowest paid in any of the nearby counties. Though County Administrator John McCarthy recently got a new four-year contract with a 15 percent raise, his $125,000-a-year salary still ranks him as sixth out of seven on the list. McCarthy, who has held the job for more than two decades, is virtually a one-man government bureaucracy himself, with no deputy and no obvious successor. If the raise keeps him around for another four years, taxpayers should be thankful; we expect it will take three people to replace him when he leaves.
68.2%