The Budget Tango
We are almost beginning to sympathize with the folks at VOICE. We recently agreed to get involved in the budgeting process and see if any of the folks here could come up with some ideas to reduce spending at the Wicomico County Board of Education and the Wicomico County Government. The depth to which Wicomico County will go to hide its fiscal ineptitude is amazing.
We’ve repeatedly criticized VOICE, Bill Duvall and Hadley V. Baxendale about their lack of specific proposals to reduce spending in both the county and BOE budgets. While we are not ready to formally apologize for those criticisms, we do sympathize with their lack of specific response. In fact, our formal apology may not be long in coming.
The Board of Education wants public input about as much as you or I want root canal. Monday, one of our contributors called the Board of Ed and spoke with the finance office. The answers he received were shameful.
Last week the BOE held a public hearing on next year’s proposed budget. When we asked for a copy we were told that copies would not be available to the public until after the proposed budget was adopted by the BOE. How can the public make informed comment on the proposed budget without access to the documents? The response given was that we would have to take this up with the Board.
This is disgraceful. Many of us here and in the county at large have been strong advocates of the public schools. We want our children to receive a quality education. If there is wasteful spending, we want to know about it. That money could be spent in the classroom where it belongs; if not it should be returned to the taxpayer. If there is not material waste then we should have the opportunity to see for ourselves. Prohibiting public access to the budget until after it is adopted is not the way to keep your allies and impress your opponents. The more cynical of us will believe that you are hiding something. Are you? When the budget reaches the County Council for approval, they are not going to entertain specific reductions in spending from the public. They are going to rely on the “expertise” of the Board. The time to drill down into the BOE’s budget is before a proposed budget is passed by the Board and submitted to County Council.
The BOE’s arrogant attitude towards the people who fund the schools is one of the reasons that many (too many) in our community have become not only cynical and apathetic, but resentful at the cost of public education (and municipal government in general).
This brings us to the second movement of the Budget Tango. A call was also placed to the County Council today for information on their proposed budget for next year. Cato is still waiting for a response from Ted Shea’s office as to when the public will have access to the proposed budget. Perhaps the County Council will be more forthcoming than the Board of Education. We will wait and see. The public cannot be accused of apathy when they are not afforded the opportunity to be involved with the process. If the budget public hearing is just a b**** session then it doesn’t serve much of purpose, does it?
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If you want to see waste in the general budget of Wicomico County and the BOE, just go around to some of the offices at the end of the fiscal year. Spending is at a feverish pace to be sure to use up all the funds allocated in the budget - whether needed or not. I speak from experience as a past employee of the County. I personally have witnessed department heads searching through catalogs in an attempt to spend their budget. The theory is that if you do not spend it this year, the council will cut your budget the following year. I have seen small office operations with more office supplies and new equipment than a small Staples (only a slight exageration). If you want a positive suggestion, how about a reward system for department heads that save money in their budget rather than always spending every penny. Perhaps a guarantee that the following year’s budget will not be affected or some other recognition or reward. A nice dinner for the department heads would be less expensive than what they waste during June each year.