Message from the President

Howdy. June is always such a busy time for many of us as we will start on our budgets for the next year. Have you started yours yet? Are you going to be hampered by caps on your revenues or appraisals? As I write this article, it is still undecided as to which direction the Legislature is going to go. We are always threatened by either the Legislature putting a cap on such things or leaving it up to local option control. Either way, it will be very scary.
If any of these options or legislative controls are placed on counties, there will be little latitude for county government to fund anything but the obligations mandated by the state. The public will lose essential services because the cost of providing required services such as the operation of county jails would crowd out services that are preferred by constituents but are not required by law. There will be no choice in the matter. Funding services for economic development, parks, libraries, senior citizens, historical commissions, Extension agents, youth programs, better roads, faster EMS response time, and many other discretionary services will suffer.
However, the county is required to fund other services including jails, indigent legal defense, prosecutors, elections, welfare, and record keeping. These mandatory services will be our primary financial burdens which will only grow heavier. For example, our jails are becoming overcrowded, requiring more money for housing inmates, providing medical care for inmates, etc. This means less money for new law enforcement. Crime prevention will lose out to incarcerations