The Washington County Quorum Court should start its budget process now ... for 2019.
The 15-member panel elected by Washington County voters completed its annual construction of a budget for the coming year last week. The process wasn't pretty and it's hardly noticeable that they accomplished anything one might refer to as budget reform. Having rejected the notion of restoring a general fund millage of 3.9 mills to its 2011 level of 4.4 mills, the justices of the peace talked a lot about how the county is on a budgetary Titanic at some point in the future, and a lot about how adopting a budget without any serious cuts in spending would amount to "kicking the can down the road."
What’s the point?
Without changing much, the Washington County Quorum Court adopted a budget for 2018 that doesn’t resolve the long-term issues the county faces.
It turns out they rely on their kicking ability about as much as the Los Angeles Rams (leading the NFL in the number of field goals attempted and made).
The Quorum Court Budget Committee, as we've noted before, held a series of sessions to foster discussions about how to plan next year's budget. All 15 members of the Quorum Court sat on that committee, a committee of the whole, as it were.
Arkansas law requires the Quorum Court to adopt a budget at the end of each year for the year that follows.
It's hard to tell that much of anything was accomplished in those budget sessions. When the Quorum Court met Nov. 16 to officially adopt the 2018 budget, any appearance of unity went flying out the window. Budget Chairman Eva Madison resigned, taking blame for failing to lead the group to completion of its mission. Four days later, the Quorum Court adopted a 2018 budget that, beyond finding an $800,000 clerical error, doesn't do enough to get the county back on the right track. All the talk of smaller-government budgeting was just talk.
People have to want to be led, and a majority of this Quorum Court had decided (1) there was no way they would support a millage increase and (2) they weren't ready to make the kinds of cuts necessary to bring the county's spending into alignment with its revenue.
Sooner or later, a failure to do that will turn into a financial calamity. And several of the justices of the peace making these decisions probably won't be around to deal with the mess.
It's even easier to understand today why Justice of the Peace Rick Cochran resigned at the start of this year: He got tired of beating his head against the budgetary wall and recognized the Quorum Court had no intention of moving, or perhaps capacity to move, that wall. At the time, he said his primary reason for leaving included a lack of justices of the peace "recognizing the need to reinforce our dwindling reserves for the general fund."
Based on this year's budget-making for 2018, that dwindling will continue.
Washington County appears to be stuck between a fear of raising the revenue necessary to fund operations (and that will get worse after the 2020 U.S. Census, most likely) and an incapacity to find cost-savings necessary to maintain a balance between spending and revenue. We hear plenty of talk about how there are savings to be found somewhere, but the court appears unwilling or able to make it happen.
It's perfectly fine that Washington County justices of the peace don't want to raise the millage rate. But it takes more than tax reduction to balance the books. It requires spending reductions or such robust economic growth that it covers the gap. The county cannot count on the latter. The hard work is in crafting a budget that meets the revenue the Quorum Court is willing to collect. These 15 elected officials haven't done that hard work yet.
This year's Budget Committee held its organizing meeting in February and still ended up with a last-second mess. So why not get started on 2019 now? That job wasn't made any easier by the actions of this year's Quorum Court.
A betting person would probably lose if he anticipated next year will be any different.
Commentary on 11/28/2017