BOC to begin budget process Monday

BOC Chairman Danny Yearwood, who scheduled the March 28 meeting, said late last week that he would not put forth any new ideas for how to balance the FY2012 budget.

He said he refuses to go through a repeat of what he went through last fall, when after months of budget committee meetings, he incurred the public’s wrath for suggesting the county close a fire station and cut the Sheriff’s budgets.

He said the final FY2011 budget that Worley shepherded through the process will prove unworkable and predicted department managers will come before the BOC for additional appropriations before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

So instead, Yearwood said he will simply tell the commissioners today to figure out how much they want to spend in FY2012, and once the tax digest is finished – typically weeks before budget is adopted – he will let them decide whether to raise the ad valorem tax rate in order to fund their spending plan.

Worley on Friday would not comment about the county chairman’s intention to wash his hands of the process. But he did note that it is up to the person running the day-to-day operation of the county government to work with department managers and elected officials to find practical ways to cut costs or to spend more wisely the funds that are available.