July 21, 2005 Deficit Budget passes

To no one's surprise, the County Commission approved a deficit general fund budget yesterday. The General Fund is about $500,000 in the hole.

How can you cover that deficit? The same way a family would-- you pull out of your savings (fund balance).

Why would you pass a deficit budget without looking for ways to cut expenditures? I can't answer that. I was fully prepared to take the time to meet with department heads to review each budget and make cuts. Commissioner Joe Spoone had outlined some pretty hefty cuts in a brief conversation with me and some other individuals just two days before. I don't know why those cuts weren't put forward for discussion on July 21.

With some effort, we might have found additional cuts that would have given us a balanced budget in 05-06. One thing is certain. Since we didn't look, we'll never know. Another certainty: we will never get a balanced budget if we do not control spending.

We have growth in the county. We could have a balanced budget if we had the courage to make sure that our spending did not exceed our additional revenue growth. The schools could have had $2.4 million in new money and the county could have had a balanced budget if we had taken new steps to structure the revenue.

Lately, it has been interesting to watch the changes as various commissioners have morphed away from their 2002 campaign promises of accountability and have become big spenders who don't even look for ways to cut expenses.

Several commissioners have apparently now decided that we have a revenue problem (you aren't taxed enough) instead of a spending problem. If you don't think there is a spending problem, then you quit looking for ways to cut spending as happened with the 05-06 budget.

Then you shift money around. The shell game. Example: First you budget insurance in one big line item. Then you don't. Then you budget insurance in some departments and the rest of it in a single line item. Then you don't. Then you budget insurance in every department. Keep the money moving.

The budget will be published in the Citizen-Tribune and then the Commission plans to vote on it on August4.

If our spending continues to outpace our growth in revenues, we are heading toward a train wreck (huge tax increases) in the general fund. Will anyone apply the brakes?