Proposed county budget a complete waste of time

Commissioners haven?t done a service to the county by submitting a budget that includes around a 75-cent property tax increase.

Everyone knows this is nothing more than a waste of time.

It would be a dogfight to get a 10-cent property tax increase through the county commission. A 75-cent increase is completely unrealistic. It might not even gain a single vote of approval.

Members of the Budget and Finance Committee aren?t the only ones to blame, although they gave such an outlandish tax increase their seal of approval by unanimously passing it along to the full county commission for its official rejection.

These are lean economic times and the county is struggling. That is not a mystery. Therefore every department which requested a substantial increase should shoulder some of the blame. And every committee that OK?d a budget that would require a large tax increase is also responsible.

Knowing the county?s state of affairs, the ambulance service should have known better than to submit a budget that requires a 15-cent tax increase to support. The school system shouldn?t waste everyone?s time by trying to ram eye-opening teacher raises down the throats of the taxpayers.

Now is not the time for lavish spending.

County commissioners have the job of scrutinizing departmental budgets and making tough cuts. This is never an easy job. Sometimes the line between wish-list items and necessities can be blurred. Department heads don?t help the process by submitting bloated budgets.

By almost every account, the county is going to require some tax increase in order to continue normal operations. If not, county workers will have to be laid off, or services cut.

Taxpayers expect an ambulance to be at their door in minutes when they call 911, so reducing the number of paramedics on duty probably wouldn?t be a popular move. Reducing convenience center hours to three days a week would only encourage people to toss their garbage on the side of the road.

If a slight property tax increase is needed to maintain our same level of services, county commissioners should not refuse to raise taxes. This is by no means a green light to spend money wildly. Rather, it?s a professional and responsible way of approaching an annual budget.

With construction prices and energy prices soaring through the ceiling, it takes more funding to operate county government. County employees face rising expenses too ? including the cost of health care. Employees deserve a fair raise themselves.

All of this is reason for sensible budget discussions. And submitting a budget to the full county commission that includes a 75-cent property tax increase does not fall into the category of a sensible discussion.

Allowing such a budget to reach the full commission for a vote ? at this late stage in the budget process ? required more than one mistake. For commissioners looking to cut corners and save tax dollars, this would certainly be an area to evaluate. How has such an unreasonable budget made it this far?