Just Another Day at the Office
Every budget season I begin asking myself questions. Actually, I ask myself questions often while examining the actions and reactions of people but it is during budget season that I begin to answer myself as well. Put it down to hours sitting on a hard bench and mold. Hey, that seems to be the answer for everything wrong in this County. Perhaps, it is even what is wrong in the State or Nation. Maybe we have just all sniffed too much mold. After all, mold is a relatively new problem, right? Budget season also makes me sarcastic.
So, as I was sitting in my second County meeting on Tuesday evening (with the first one having taken place on Monday with the full Commission and it having had the tone of a middle school locker room), this time with the budget committee, it occurred to me that there may never be a consensus in this committee. Motion after motion was presented regarding the funding for EDOC and the Chamber of Commerce. And motion after motion failed. I know that the Chamber and EDOC are hot button issues for many in the County and for good reason. But, there are some very simple questions that these committee members need to ask themselves before voting.
Do I believe that Jefferson County should be funding the Chamber of Commerce and EDOC? If the answer is yes then move on to question 2. If not then the answer and the vote should be clear.
Am I comfortable with Jefferson County funding more than 50% of the budget of either the Chamber or EDOC? If the answers is yes, then the funding proposal from EDOC and the Chamber should look pretty good. If not, what level am I comfortable with funding?
Do I believe that the Chamber and EDOC should have open meetings and records if they accept tax payer funds, regardless of whether they come from hotel/motel tax or other revenues? If the answer is yes then how am I going to ensure that the tax payer knows where their money is being spent?
For many of us, the answers to these questions would be simple. I, for example, would say that I do not have issue with funding the Chamber of Commerce or EDOC via hotel/motel funds. I would also say that I am not comfortable with the tax payer being handed the tab for more than 25 % of their combined budget and I would want an outline for what that 25% was to be used for. Yes, I know that the money goes into their budget in its entirety. But, if they want funding, they need to let the public know what that funding is for and it needs to be documented. If it is for salaries, fine. If it is for other expenses, that is also fine. Just declare what it is used for and document it. That is no less than we ask of our own departments. Take for example the Capitol Projects Budget. Facilities Director Longmire spends many hours documenting his requests for County buildings. Why should we expect less of organizations that claims that they are not an arm of the County government​? I don’t think that anyone wants to read the Chamber or EDOC’s diary and we don’t want to spread their secrets. We simply don’t want to be the recipient of any more surprises. I also believe that there could be a reason that either organization might need additional funds. Should that be the case, those hotel/motel funds would be safe sitting in a reserve account and they could be tapped for any legitimate request from the Chamber, EDOC or the County’s Industrial Development Board. Or perhaps, if the committee could agree, they could designate exactly what they will and will not pay for with hotel/motel funds. Electricity, sure. Payroll, okay. Expensive travel, nope. You get the picture. The bottom line is that these organizations should be very, very good at generating their own revenue through membership. If they can’t, it raises other questions.
The truth is that EDOC and Chamber funding should be a thirty minute discussion and a vote, not a three hour tour. Currently, the budget document sits at $2.3 million in the hole and the DOE budget isn’t in yet. There are much, much bigger fish to fry and many more relevant issues to debate just around the corner. Maybe someone should bring a Magic 8 Ball or they could flip for it. Heads to fund, tails to cut. Or maybe, just maybe, and this is a wild and crazy suggestion, maybe they could determine a reasonable compromise. One that benefits the tax payers because,at the end of the day, that is whose interest should be foremost on the priority list. It is taxpayer money after all and no one, absolutely no one, is entitled to more consideration than the people who pay the bills.
