Every Hoke County Department Told to Trim 10% from Their Budget

Opinion: Inflated commissioner salaries, their bloated luxury travel expenses and the recent tripling of monthly stipends for each Board of Education member are apparently untouched—that's leadership?

Glaringly missing in today’s memo was any mention (seen below) that the Hoke County Commissioners were also taking a 10-percent cut in pay or trimming their exorbitant travel expenses. That single line would have been a huge morale boost for county staff members who were ambushed by the news. It’s also an ugly reminder they’re lowly employees, not a valued part of a team serving Hoke County.

All five commissioners take home at least $36,000 a year, plus benefits, for part-time positions. It would have cost them all of $3,600 annually to make a gesture that shows true leadership and compassion for others. Judging by their homes and business ventures it wouldn’t strain their budgets.

Hopefully they’ll drop their pay, but in the meantime outrage boiled over as copies of the leaked memo from an anonymous source circulated. Regardless of party affiliation or loyalty to the deeply entrenched regime that’s held a stranglehold on the Hoke County Commission for decades, you should be disgusted by the lack of genuine leadership.

“This is the people’s money, not the commissioners,” said Ricky Locklear, who is running for a seat on the Hoke County Commission in 2026. “So they should cut the expenses that they’re doing with all these meetings and stuff and wasting the people’s money. There are several things that could be done. They should not get all these special perks because they are commissioners. The money spent on them could be used in so many other places.”

Utility (Water) Department Hit

The memo directs department directors to trim 10 percent of the money they typically spend on supplies, material, training, dues, replacement parts and more. That includes, unfortunately, the fatigued team trying to keep water flowing to homes. For them it’s been like a game of Whac-A-Mole—plug one water main leak and another pops up.

The Sheriff’s Office is not considered a department, so there’s no reason to expect an increase in response times or compromise in our safety. It’s unclear if its recent request for an armored vehicle to thwart parachuting terrorist fire teams and hand out lollipops during the fall festival will be approved.

Commissioners—who insist the recent passage of the federal Big Beautiful Bill is to blame—are also unaffected. During their first meeting in July they claimed the measure, designed in part to reduce fraud in programs that help those in need, was going to impact Hoke County significantly.

At that gathering Commissioner Tony Hunt claimed a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study in 2010 found only 11,000 people nationwide defrauded a program that he oversees locally. Our review of the same GAO report found those 11,000 people were dead—more accurately the names of the deceased being used by criminals—to collect benefits in only the seven states included.

The GAO’s conclusion was the program was routinely exploited by opportunistic criminals, and not the tightly run ship Hunt alleged. But he, Leach and Southerland spent more than 22 minutes claiming no good was going to come from the Big Beautiful Bill.

That has yet to be seen. Meanwhile, there’s no doubt the knee-jerk, leadership-free reaction—no federal cuts have been announced locally—by the “Henny Penny Sky is Falling” Hoke County Commission has negatively impacted every county employee tonight.

It’ll soon be felt by us all.