Fiscal discipline can avert crisis

Everyone has an opinion on government spending, particularly when the tax dollars are spent close to home on services like schools and roads and public safety.

And, as usual, there's plenty of disagreement.

But on one point, there ought to be unanimity: Local taxing units shouldn't spend every dollar they collect from taxpayers.

There needs to be sound fiscal discipline that maintains a "cushion" to keep things going in case of unforeseen events.

How large the "cushion" should be can be debated endlessly.

But the current economic climate provides daily reminders of how important it is to have a savings account or rainy day fund.

That ought to be simple common sense, and it's pretty much the tradition in Jay County.

But it's not the case everywhere.

Jay Schools business manager Brad DeRome knows of school systems that like to end the year with a cash balance of $1.

What those systems do when the state delays funding or property tax draws are delayed by reassessment is anyone's guess.

County auditor Nancy Culy tells of county governments that maintain a year-end operating balance of $50,000 with no fall-back plan if they encounter an unexpected crisis.

By contrast, Jay Schools ended the last calendar year with an operating balance or "cushion" of $2.9 million. County government had an operating balance of $2 to $3 million with another $1 million in a stabilization or rainy day fund which was created by the 2007 adjustment in the local option income tax.

Even the town of Redkey, which has struggled mightily to dig itself out of financial problems over the past few years, ended 2008 in the black.

Historically, the county's record of fiscal prudence isn't unblemished.

The school corporation found itself pinched by a combination of loose spending habits and the Ray Dunn theft of lease payments several years ago. And in the 1980s, county government was overspending at a rate that raised eyebrows.

That history, in part, may be why public officials are so consistently focused on fiscal responsibility today.

It has taken serious discipline by all involved to get us where we are.

And where we are is an enviable position when compared to those communities where a history of overspending, a political unwillingness to look at revenue systems other than property taxes, and the impact of the circuit breaker law have combined to create a crisis, a crisis we're happy to do without. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]