You guys will understand my anger and frustration. You see this crap everyday at the federal level so you know what I'm up against at the local level.
I’m a justice of the peace in Washington County Arkansas. In Arkansas that means I am a member of the Quorum Court – the county’s legislative body. Our primary responsibility, as with any legislative body, is to produce and pass the budget that keeps the government going. As with most local governments, we get jerked around by the state and federal governments who remove our revenue sources while handing us basically unfunded mandates to increase our expenses. We don’t like it but we’re used to it and we’ve been able to deal with it, with the great help of our department heads and elected officials, and keep services going while reducing our budget.
We’ve known for years that 2012 and probably 2013 are going to be bad revenue years and have, over the last 6 years managed to put aside $10 million in "contingency" funds to deal with those bad times. This required Budget and Finance Committee chairs working closely – and fairly – with those department heads and elected officials.
Now it’s crunch time. We expect a $1.8 million revenue drop for 2011 and as much as a $6 million drop in 2012. We’ve spent the last two years telling everybody to prepare for it – get what equipment you need, but no more than you need, while we have the money, etc. This year the Budget Committee chair asked for a "bare bones" budget from everybody this year and next year – no raises, less than inflation increase in operating expenses, flat-line or less capital outlays – and they gave us that.
Then we get down to the last Budget Committee meeting, the one that’s supposed to lock it all up and send the recommended budget to the full Quorum Court for passage. The co-chair (a teabagger as you might guess) proposed to cut operating budgets by 4%. And all four teabaggers (including the one who just last week publicly "commended" the department heads for working so hard to save the County money) and the one waffler R voted for it. Six Dems and the two sane Rs voted against it. The original bare-bones budget goes to the Quorum Court for full vote. It takes nine votes to pass it on the first reading. One of the sane Rs will not be there. There will have to be two "special" Quorum Court meetings called to pass the budget by simple majority and we have to hang onto the single sane R left for three full roll-call meetings. Otherwise we have more special meetings to hammer out a budget we can get at least 7 votes on. The entire 4% supposed savings will quite possibly be spent on special sessions to get a budget passed by December 31, 2010.
Meanwhile, at last night’s meeting one department head – the one who turned in a bare bones budget a full 7% less than last year – cried. She literally would not have enough money to keep the library doors open all year without that money.
Starting next year we’ll have 8 Rs to our 5 Dems and nobody knows yet whether the new R is sane or a teabagger. Due to seniority the ratbastard who pulled that 4% cut at the last meeting may end up being the new Finance and Budget Committee Chair. Six years of work developing a trusting relationship down the tube. The department heads will never give us a bare bones budget again. They can’t trust us. And I just wish I had a hole I could hide in for the next two years.
Thanks for listening.