Cooking the County Books | Eastern North Carolina Now

    We are approaching the end of another Beaufort County fiscal year. All county fiscal years in North Carolina end on June 30. Projections to the end of the year are being made for budgeting purposes. This means we are supposed to be able to compare this year's spending to last year's spending. Once the budget is approved a tax rate is set for he coming year. A great many commissioners waffle around about what is and what has to be spent. The simple truth is that if we do not spend the money we do not have to tax you. Governments spending money causes taxes. Too many politicians want to make decisions based on what they think you need. Truth is I do not need very much, what about you?

    One game that is played to make things look good at the end of the year is to not include all spending in the year ending budget. These large items are brought in two or three months after the budget year ends. This need not happen if the commissioners demand the staff include all known expenses in the year ending budget. With good management, these adjustments are made and approved before the end of the year. After all we have a purchase order system.

    I am always suspicious that these budget adjustments for expenditures that are brought to our Board for approval after the end of the year are some kind of cover up. For example we have huge over runs in the sheriff's office because he shut down part of the jail. All of those should be estimated and approved by the commissioners before the end of this year. If these are not included in this years budget and are held over until next year our books will not be accurate and it is possible, with government accounting, that those excesses may never be reflected in the budget.

    I have had some sharp disagreements with our staff about this. Government accounting and annual book balancing is different than corporate books. Corporate books have to be closed at the end of the year not a few months later. Government accounting by corporate standards is sloppy. It need not be that away. People have been sent to prison because they failed to report all expenditures (to make themselves or their bonus look good) at the end of the corporate year.

    We need accurate up to the date books. I will be working on this during the months of May and June. I am sure there will be some disagreements. Holding over bills is not a good thing. If, as may be the case, they have to be held over they should appear in the next years expenses for that department and not as a journal entry from the general fund. That would be a cover-up.