It All Comes Down To Accountability
It is time to vote on a budget and that means that it is time to get real and stop playing with the numbers. I know that I don’t have a vote on the budget but I do have questions regarding who gets what and who gets nothing and how we do, or do not, spend our money.
If there is $666,303 in fund balance that can be used at the discretion of the County Commission-And, If those funds were not even known about until a couple of weeks ago-And, If we have departmental needs that have not even been discussed including funding deficits that landed us in court during the current fiscal year- why are we not utilizing those funds? What are we waiting for? Another law suit? Chairman Mills made a motion to use $115,000 of those funds to pay the Chamber of Commerce and EDOC the balance that is not covered by hotel/motel tax. What are we going to do with the rest of it-let it sit there and hope that tax payers forget about it? I don’t know about you but I think that over a half of a million dollars is worth remembering.
If we have, according to Director of Finance Helton, around $6.5 million dollars in Debt Service Fund Balance-And, If the State only suggests a six month debt cushion which is around $3.7 million-And, If we can put the QSCAB funds of nearly $500,000 anywhere it is needed –Why did we just, in the last meeting, decide to move the funds from the General Fund where they could be used to full fill the needs of the County to Debt Service where they will sit with several million dollars that is restricted in use-Because, the State of Tennessee Comptroller’s guidelines do not allow for undesignated funds in any fund but the General Fund and we have an overblown debt service fund balance that we just keep adding to.
Jefferson County Mayor Palmieri requested that the Commission look into funding the final year of Tn Achieves at $30,000 so that our students that are dependent on the funds will not be left out in the cold (state dollars will pick it up next year). He also requested $1200 for new computers in Zoning and Building that were pushed out of the budget for the past three years and around $75,000 for funding payroll needs that already found their way into a law suit this fiscal year. Palmieri suggested using part of the $666,303 to fund those items. Paying for all of those items and the overage from EDOC and the Chamber will still leave around $445,103 in the account for other needs. And we certainly have other needs. Lots of other needs-including needing to spend the money that we already have before going to the tax payers for more.
This is an election year but this is not a lame duck Commission. Any questions that they fail to ask and any action that they fail to take should not be without accountability. What we need in this County is to get the budget numbers correct and then we need to spend what we have, for the real needs of the County Departments and for the service of the people, before we ask for more. Every tax payer should ask this final question-Why should I take from my savings account to put money into their savings account? Use what you have and make the request for more in a responsible manner, for the good of the people.
