Marc Abear: Supplemental appropriations are for unexpected events, not items cut from budget

To The Daily Sun,

A recent letter smears the county delegation and its chair. The opinion expressed asserts, “events have proven that most of our county delegation represent no one but themselves, with open contempt for anyone who disagrees with them.” The opinion is unwarranted and unfair.

The county delegation is made up of elected fellow citizens freely giving of their time to represent the people in their districts. The $100 per year less taxes is, at best, a token payment.

What we just witnessed was a bastardization of the usual county budget process. By statute the county commission proposes a budget. The delegation sets the amount of money to be spent. When there isn’t enough money to do all the things the commission wants, priorities must be set.

The budget process is the way those spending priorities are resolved. The process is done in open public meetings with votes cast to determine what gets funded and what does not.

This year nearly immediately after budget passage the commission requested a supplemental appropriation. The supplemental appropriation was items cut from the budget.

The request was irregular in that normally, the commission does not re-request what has already been considered and cut. Supplemental appropriations normally are for unexpected events like revenue shortfalls or casualty losses.

This supplemental spending request was for funding outside agencies. Outside agencies are organizations outside county government. What they do has value, but they do not fulfill essential functions of county government.

The unfairness of the criticism is made worse by the fact, the delegation placed into the budget contingency funds of nearly double the supplemental appropriation request. Contingency funds are funds budgeted in anticipation of unexpected events.

This kind of partisan political food fight is the kind of thing that makes reasonable responsible people not want to run for office.

Marc Abear

Meredith