ANNOUNCEMENT

RICK WILBUR ANNOUNCES RE-ELECTION BID FOR WYOMING COUNTY COMMISSIONER

I’m excited to announce that I will be running for re-election for a second term as a Republican Commissioner of Wyoming County and will be on the ballot on November 7, 2023.

Almost 4 years ago on January 6, 2020, I stood before President Judge Russell Shurtleff and was sworn in to begin my first term as your county commissioner. Later that day, I was voted in to chair the board and have served in that capacity for the past three years.

It seems like just yesterday, but almost 4 years have passed so quickly since taking over leading the Board of Commissioners. I knew that becoming chairman was a momentous challenge with many problems to address, and I’m confident that I’ve done my best to meet them all.

PROMISES MADE AND PROMISES KEPT

I will do everything I can to stop raising your county property taxes. I’ve taken over preparation of the budget and for all three years I’ve prepared the budget, your county taxes haven’t gone up. I can’t promise we can keep doing that forever, but I sure will try to do it for as long as I can. Even though taxes weren’t raised in the midst of record inflation, no services have been cut and a lot of initiatives have been added.
I will be a full time commissioner. I’m at the courthouse every day and attend many meetings and events in the evening and on weekends. I’m certainly no stranger to the courthouse and everyone working there knows that.
I will be a steward of the county’s finances and act in a fiduciary manner to protect all citizens. I prepared a plan to refinance the county’s bond debt paying 4% per year with a bank loan from People’s Security paying 2%, saving the county $200,000 a year.
This refinancing also provided additional funds used to buy out employees near retirement and make our pension plan more stable. We did not replace 5 of these retiring employees, saving the county a substantial amount of money.
As a steward of the county’s finances, the Tax Anticipation Note (TAN) taken by the county has been reduced from $2.2 million to $1 million for 2023. What that means is we are spending our money more wisely and not borrowing nearly as much to get us through the first few months of the year until property tax payments start coming in. Hopefully this can be reduced even further in coming years.
I promised to bring our finances into much better shape than when I started. We now have a rainy day fund that never existed before. Although not as large as I’d like, we are working on increasing the balance each year as much as we can. If an emergency arises, we can now better handle it rather than borrowing even more.
Although this wasn't a promise I made, I led the county’s effort to guide our businesses and not for profits through the scourge of COVID. Over 90% of all COVID relief funds received were given directly to those in need and not spent by the county for expenses that had little to do with helping the needy as was done by some of our fellow counties. The only COVID money that didn't go to those in need was used directly by the county for COVID response expenses.

These are just a few of the highlights of my almost 4 years as the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners in Wyoming County. I’ve gained cooperation from my fellow commissioners and department heads and firmly believe that Wyoming County is on the right track into the future. For more info on my last 3 years, please check out other pages on my website.:

If you believe I’ve done a good job and deserve another 4 years as County Commissioner, please vote for me on November 7, 2023.