Head Scratching Moments

Sometimes I wonder about things that happen. I understand mistakes and life often gets in the way of the best laid plans but we seem to have more than our share of head scratching moments. Perhaps it is the humidity or lack of rain that makes me testy and maybe, just maybe, it is not. Maybe it is those head scratching things that plague me like a mosquito bite on a hard to reach location.

Why would Jefferson County request that State Auditors and other outside officials take their time to come to an Audit Committee meeting and not enough committee members show up to have a quorum? We set the meeting-They came-We didn’t. Oh, and it is Jefferson County that has a pending $5 million dollar deficit that is going to have to be addressed. Absolutely head scratching.

How can our budget committee even pretend that there will be a budget in time to meet the July 1, 2014 deadline when they have not begun to vote on issues other than the ones that cannot be changed? Director of Finance Helton says that he already has a continuing budget amendment ready for the County Commission to keep them in compliance ( sort of). No kidding-who didn’t see that one coming?

How did the Director of Jefferson County Finance not know the tax rate for Jefferson County? How did the Director of Jefferson County Finance not know the tax rate for Jefferson County? How did the Director of Jefferson County Finance not know the tax rate for Jefferson County? After writing it three times it still sounds ridiculous. IF the budget committee could have gotten it together and voted on a complete budget and IF the County Commission had been collectively muzzled and prepared to pass a budget (conceding that those are two huge Ifs) it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because revenues were calculated on a $2.18 tax rate and Jefferson County has a $2.15 tax rate. Seriously.

There are other things that just didn’t make the short list but these seem to be the biggies right now. Of course, there is always tomorrow, or rather Monday, when they conjure again to make the magic happen.