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County board needs to publish financial statement, be accountable
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To the Editor:
The Jan. 13 issue of the Argus had two items written by Charlie Warner namely, “Rejection of printing financial statement may be illegal” and editorial, “Board’s decision may have negative impact for many county residents”.
Mr. Warner is correct in that this will have a major negative impact. Below are facts that indicate that the printing of financial statements in the four primary Houston County newspapers are a must if the majority of residents are going to have any type of understanding on where their money and taxes are being spent. Suppression of facts to ANY residents is not a government for the people or by the people.
In the spirit of the law, the publishing of financial statements is to insure that ALL residents can review them.
It appears that Mr. Warner’s statistics on computer and Internet usage by Houston County is very conservative. In reality, how many adults and senior citizens even know how to access the Houston County site? How many are able to access it? In addition, are the county commissioners expecting senior citizens to go to the public library to obtain all this critical information? What about parking? What about other forms of assistance, such as bad weather or getting to the library? What about disabled?
The residents of Houston County have a RIGHT and DUTY to check up on the actions of the county commissioners. By not publishing financial statements and/or making financials difficult or impossible for the majority of residents to review, enables the county commissioners to almost function as a tyrant government. The following facts will show how easy it can be for the commissioners to deceive the public: (All facts have been published in the Houston County newspapers)
A. In December of 2007, an item was published, “Houston County sets budget for 2007” and in the article it stated, “The budget for Houston County has increased less than 1 percent in four years……commissioners approved the 2007 operating budget at $21,606,990. Four years ago the 2003 budget was $21,522,000.” (Statement provided by a commissioner). The commissioner failed to include one small word, namely, “PROPOSED BUDGET”. The actual expenditures for 2003 were $16,606,990. One has to ask, why was the 2003 proposed budget almost $5 million over actual, namely, $21,522,000? (In plain words, the actual increase was NOT less than one percent).
B. If the 2007 proposed budget was $21,606,990, why is the 2010 proposed budget $24.5 million? If the actual expenditures in 2006 were $18,141,200 why is the 2010 proposed budget $24.5 million? Just for the record, the actual expenditures for 2004 were $16,230,654 and 2005 was $17,879,528.
Houston County residents need accountability in government. Review the numbers again and REMEMBER that the population of Houston County is less than 20,000 and not less than 20,000,000. Your recent years of increases are in the millions and you want to suppress resident’s knowledge of financials for $1,500! Commissioners should be finding BETTER ways of informing ALL residents and not only the rich!
Larry Salm
Caledonia, Minn.
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