budget tardiness



Monday night at the Tift County Commissioners’ meeting, Commissioner Charlotte Bedell made a very reasonable request.

She has been out of state during the last two public hearings that were held about the proposed county budget and was therefore unable to learn as much as she feels she needs to know to make an informed vote. She asked that a vote on the adoption of the budget be delayed another week to see if the proposed budget could be reduced any more.

People have to go out of town, it’s a fact of life. Why should anyone making reservations months in advance expect that the county’s budget still wouldn’t be finished in mid-July? And wanting to wait until the best possible proposal can be made is certainly the right thing to do.

The problem is that this whole scene should have occurred in March or April, not July. The budget being proposed is for the fiscal year that began 11 days ago. This is unacceptable.

Try to find a private company that operates under these conditions. Talk to the head of any business and ask when they finalize their budget. If it’s three weeks past the start of the year they’re budgeting for, chances are you wouldn’t have to worry about catching that boss at work. The labor office would be a better choice.

July 1 does not move on the calendar. The county should have begun this process far in advance so that we don’t have to operate past the deadline. At a recent county meeting, one of our commissioners indicated that the tardiness of the process was no huge deal since it has happened before.

Well, that doesn’t cut it. Citizens should not stand for this attitude and negligence. We entrust the county with millions of dollars of tax money so in effect, we are shareholders in the organization. If they make a bad decision with good intentions, we understand and hope for better results next time. This does not fall into that category. This has happened before and apparently was not taken seriously enough to avoid having it happen again.

The county is having a tough time making budget decisions right now, a tough task that agencies and businesses have to deal with each year. The process is made even more urgent, unnecessarily, by the fact that the county is woefully behind.

There’s just no good excuse for it. And it absolutely shouldn’t happen again.