We don’t the national news to hear about budget shenanigans and an administration trying to limit public comment; just follow the 3-member majority on the Fayette County Commission.
As reported in The Citizen last week and discussed by the commissioners in Wednesday’s work session, both topics have moved to the forefront and will be discussed again on Thursday, June 9 at the 7 p.m. Board of Commissioners meeting. You should attend.
You’d be correct to scratch your head and ask how the county could have a budget problem. Less than 12 months ago, former Chairman Smith was touting a $6 million budget reduction and a $5 million increase in reserves on full color, front page newspaper banners. In a following edition, Smith raised the claim to $7 million of budget reductions.
So how could we have a problem less than 12 months later?
Budget discussions this year suggest that much of the money in the two pots was the same loot — that last year’s commission simply deferred necessary spending for infrastructure maintenance and replacing worn out equipment (“budget reduction”), and labeling those funds as “reserves.”
It doesn’t take a CPA to realize the inevitable impact of kicking critical expenses down the road a couple of years, or to recognize it as a poor budget practice. Regardless, the financial “reserves” will be significantly impacted with this year’s budget. So much for our budget savings and reserves.
Holdover commissioners Frady, Hearn, and Horgan held the votes last year to have prevented this, but they did not. Now the chickens have come home to roost and they are considering a property tax increase (did I really just hear that here, or is it a “more taxes” echo from Washington?).
Two new commissioners, McCarty and Brown, have suggested another option to fund the deferred maintenance and vehicle replacements (you do still want the sheriff’s deputies to be able to respond, right?).
With the governor’s recent approval of HB 240, the commissioners may pass a resolution to modify the application of Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax (SPLOST) funds to reducing debt or property taxes. They can pass such a resolution at a county meeting, then put it to the voters to decide.
This would also be an excellent way to resolve the considerable controversy surrounding the Fayetteville bypasses (which constitute the largest share of unspent SPLOST money).
Rather than the three commissioners and citizens groups confronting each other on the road issue, put it to the voters. It has the clear potential to put a very distracting chapter behind us and would go a long way to stabilizing the budget this year and for years to come.
Whichever way the vote turns out, our elected county representatives can confidently carry out the will of the people. And all Fayette County citizens and elected officials could jointly direct their considerable ideas and energies to further improving our Fayette County quality of life.
And that would be a refreshing difference from Washington.
Robert J. Ross
Peachtree City, Ga.
