Opinion - Not enough color?

At last week’s budget hearing, two commissioners complained they did not have a copy of the preliminary budget.

Auditor Eunice Coker said she had sent the figures two weeks earlier.

Apparently, the figures had been e-mailed to the commissioners, but the two just did not know what to do with them. Commissioner Greg Partch, in fact, complained that he could not read them because they were not in finished form, and, as he said, they were not printed off in color.

Well, he got his wish.

The preliminary 2011 budget is awash in red. The deficit is estimated to be more than $600,0000. This estimate is the result of Commissioner Michael Largent’s work. He corrected the figures submitted by Coker.

Now, the commissioners have two weeks to get the budget finalized, and that means some dramatic cuts in expenses, the use of the county’s limited cash reserves or both.

The task will be a daunting one for a variety of reasons.

The final, albeit confusing and expensive, reconstruction of the county’s financial system is not complete. Money, perhaps $200,000, is still missing and will have to be written off. Worse, there seems to be no common goal in the budgeting process. Coker is exercising her independence from the commissioners. And naturally no department wants to be trimmed.

It will be a tough two weeks. The department heads and the commissioners will be tested to come up with a responsible budget that does not gut the reserves and does not gut services to the public.

And, as for color, black would be nice.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher