I can almost hear the Church Lady now: "isn't that conveeeenient!" But I suppose Wicomico County dodges a bullet:
With the recently completed official audit for Fiscal Year 2009 now in hand, Wicomico County Executive Richard M. Pollitt, Jr., has announced that an additional $3.5 Million are available to support the county’s Roads operation until the end of the current Fiscal Year on June 30, 2010. Until the County received the final audited fund balance report on the Roads fund, records indicated that these funds were encumbered and, therefore, not available. As a result of the updated information, Mr. Pollitt has withdrawn his pending budget amendment request for the use of General Fund appropriations to support Roads.
Mr. Pollitt commented, “This new information somewhat changes the overall budget amendment which the County Council has been considering since I submitted it in early October. In the General Fund, neither the revenue nor expense portion now includes additional appropriations for Roads, and therefore helps to conserve the County's General Fund reserves. I believe the adjusted amendment now conforms to my wishes and to Council’s stated intent to place Wicomico County in the best possible financial position to enter the upcoming Fiscal Year 2011 budget session.”
The county has been forced to consider using General Fund support for Roads operations since last summer’s State cut of roughly 94% in traditional Roads revenue. Pollitt has repeatedly pledged that he will not allow the Roads Department to close and that the roads will be kept safe.
However, I don't think that because of this "found" money the county should abandon the cost-saving measures they were considering in order to keep the roads department going. It should also be an opportunity to look into privatization of certain functions as is prudent both fiscally and servicewise.
Again, this goes back to having the budget compiled from scratch each year, something which was promised by Rick Pollitt when he ran for office in 2006. In this case, though, someone messed up and placed the $3.5 million in a column of money thought untouchable. Obviously the buck stops with the County Executive and it makes me wonder what other mistakes have been made which wouldn't have been discovered without an audit and how much they may have cost county taxpayers.
But it does take away another excuse to remove the revenue cap and means county roads may not be in such bad shape after what's shaping up to be a tough winter.