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EDITORIAL: Fine-tuning county budget should be done(Beaumont Enterprise, The (Texas) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jul. 28--Reading this month's headlines and those in July 2005, you'd think there'd been a miracle of biblical proportions in Jefferson County's budget. It's a mystery since the budget fundamentals haven't undergone epic shifts from famine to feast. Yet, there could be important changes, at least for future budgets, if commissioners will bend. There's plenty of motivation. "Study, politicians pinch pennies," read one headline about the county budget last July. "Wait and see," read another. "Constables appeal for resources" sounds stern. "County Commissioners make largest cuts to budget requests so far" was a favorite among many taxpayers. Flash forward 12 months and you read Saturday: "Judges get max raise" and learned the county commissioners court voted 3-2 last Friday to spend $125,000 of taxpayer money on raises for judges and the district attorney. The two naysayers noted an absence of research before the vote. Other county officials want raises for themselves or their employees, but the reality of lean finances might return given the headline "Tax cuts might be smaller -- Protests behind drop in appraisal value" that ran Thursday. Wednesday came a request for $75,000 to advertise Ford Park events locally from a panel studying how Ford Park, the county commissioner-approved entertainment complex, can better operate. They grasp their quandary: "Don't get in the water until you learn how to swim," remarked member Don Penland. Panel members have had to learn while doing. Scant research on the finances of such a complex was done before $77 million in taxpayer money, much of it borrowed, was spent to construct it. About $1.8 million a year keeps it open. County commissioners can improve the budget, perhaps creating spare change for raises. -- Ford Park can swap in-kind advertising with similar locations. Stuck on the western edge of the city, Ford Park's scrolling electronic sign reaches the eyes of drivers on Interstate 10, but few of them are local residents. Trading with other local venues -- advertising Beaumont and Port Arthur's civic center events in exchange for those two venues returning the favor for Ford Park events -- would publicize local events at a fraction of $75,000. -- Accelerate Ford Park's debt payments. The sooner it's paid, the sooner almost $4 million annually could go elsewhere, or back to taxpayers. -- Slash excess personnel. This won't be easy since the primary target is each county commissioner's largest constituent satisfaction tool, road maintenance. Now, each commissioner has a budget for projects and their own crew and gear. Each commissioner should retain their project budgets while merging their personnel into one, countywide unit. They could cut some of the staff duplication, most in supervisory positions, through layoffs or attrition, while retaining the money, and ultimate control, with their individual project budget. They've resisted layoffs or merging the units. Voters upset with Ford Park have reacted by laying off two members of the commissioners court. It might come to more layoffs on the court to focus the county's budget on protecting taxpayers' wallets. [email protected] (409) 838-2822 |