Dear Editor,
Without much fanfare so far this year, on Friday, Aug. 29, the Board of Commissioners is scheduled to approve the county’s 2026 General Fund budget. While it does appear the commissioners will not be raising the millage rate, it does appear they will be approving a General Fund budget that reflects expenditures exceeding revenue by about $2.7M.
To make up this deficit and have a balanced budget, the board will be forced to take $1.7M out of the county’s surplus (“rainy day fund”) account and have chosen to take another $1M of personnel operating expenses out of the general fund and transfer to a capital account fund which is normally reserved for “capital” expenditures like firetruck purchases, road projects, and the like, meaning less dollars for those capital projects.
And there is real discussion as to whether that transfer of operating expenses to a “Capital” account is even legal or not. And even if deemed legal, is it a good policy going forward to transfer operational expenses to a “Capital” account?
My position — leave all the operating expenses in the general fund, where, in my opinion, they belong, and leave the capital accounts alone in order to pay for much-needed capital projects such as road paving, large equipment purchases, jail renovations, and other critical capital projects.
This deficit spending budget reminds me of a quote from Ronald Reagan: “The problem is not that people are taxed too little; the problem is that government spends too much.”
Billy Webster, Putnam County