No one spoke for or against the budget, which is expected to be adopted when the board reconvenes on June 30, nor was there any additional discussion by board members on a single item being recommended by county manager Ed Causey and his staff.
If the public hearing is the determining factor, all that’s actually left for commissioners to do is give their blessing to the document and move forward.
And residents really should have no argument with the board doing just that since citizens opted to remain mum on any qualms they might have about the impending adoption of the budget.
While those who comment on our website indicate numerous issues with recommended expenditures, including the purchase of 15 new cars for the Sampson County Sheriff’s Department and several new hires at other county agencies, and while unnamed citizens have voice complaints in telephone message to the newspaper, not one single person chose to air those concerns to commissioners.
The lack of comment sends a clear message to commissioners — that everyone is OK with the plan as presented — and commissioners are likely to act based on that message, approving the plan as it stands.
While we see no problem with how the budget has been handled to this point, we do, however, urge commissioners to come to the June 30 meeting with a full knowledge of what adopting this year’s plan might mean down the road for Sampson County.
In other words, we hope they aren’t merely poised to rubber stamp the budget they’ve been presented without being ready to defend why some expenses were deemed OK while others immediately fell under the ax.
In many ways, it’s a commendable budget, trimmed of excess that would have, without question, come with a price tag taxpayers can ill afford to pay this year.
But commissioners, as they prepare to approve the fiscal plan, still should have questions they must ask themselves, primary among them whether this year’s budget is clearly a no frills, no fat plan, and whether it will, in any way, leave the door wide open next year and the next for a property tax increase.
Not raising taxes this year is a good thing, but delaying what may amount to an inevitable, and perhaps higher, one a year down the road just lulls one into a false comfort zone.
Couple that with the fact that a nice chunk — $1.6 million to be exact — of the county’s fund balance is being used to prop up the budget and one does have to wonder what the future could hold.
All may be OK as the county moves into 2010-11 and 2011-12, but commissioners need to fully understand the hand they are dealing residents and be certain the deck is stacked in residents’ favor before raising their hand next week in favor of such a plan.
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