I get a lot of questions from constituents asking how much money is really wasted in our County budget. The short answer is: None.
Sure, out of a $110 million budget you can find a nickel here and a nickel there, but it will be miniscule compared to the overall budget, and it certainly is not enough to fill any gap needed to fix the county's employee salary issue.
Further, the amount of effort you would have to spend to find it would be significant (e.g., you'd have to count all the "paper clips" yourself and watch how the staff uses them to see if they are being used prudently). The reality is that the Commissioners and other elected officials run a pretty efficient budget and every one of us (including department heads) is very mindful of how taxpayer dollars are spent.
Here's what a fellow commissioner had to say in December about your County Government and waste:
Few people realize how tight we run the budget. Our operating budget, the part that covers operations (like: gas, bullets, food, paper, etc.) increased ONLY $38k between FY23 and FY24. That's out of $110 million!
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