Catoosa Vision

Budget Woes... Redux

I read the recent article about the Catoosa County Commission's latest "special called meeting" to discuss budget issues. (Click here for the article in the Catoosa County News.) Seems Commissioner Clark brought the Commission together to discuss some proposals that (may have been or) were already voted on at previous meetings. Three of the commissioners had decided to end the meeting before it turned into yet another grandstanding moment for Mr. Clark and his "no government, no taxes, no services" approach to governance. (Those are my words, btw, not his.)

Honestly, I'm tired of watching this community wallow in a pool of disfunction. If it's not Ft. Oglethorpe and Ringgold fighting over unincorporated areas of the County, then it's the County complaining about not having enough money yet refusing to do what's necessary to get more.

I'd love to see a county budget where the dollars are shown along with some information about which of the service areas are mandatory (e.g. required by either state or federal law) versus those that are discretionary (e.g. luxury items for the betterment of our quality of life). I think a lot of residents think that there are lots of areas where we spend money and it's our choice, when the reality is that the items are mandatory for one reason or another. The "No Child Left Behind" Federal mandate on the school system is one good example.

Send out a menu of items and let residents select a la carte what they want to have or not have in the county. I think if more people were faced with the actual decision of giving up certain county services in lieu of getting other services, the results might be interesting. I suspect that more people would say that they don't want to give up most of the services and would therefore agree that the services are worth paying for.

I don't know... we're just wrestling in quicksand, with no one gaining any advantage, while we all sink into the pit.

posted by Chris Casey @ 7:54 AM