The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1915-10-01
TO CONSIDER COUNTY BUDGET,

Last Thursday afternoon County
commissioners Miller, Nixon and
Green spent few hours in Oroville
while on tour of the north part of
the county. They had been out in u
car for several days visiting all parts
of the county. the primc:y object being
a personal inspection of the public
roads. They fou,.d thcm good, bad
and Indifferent, principally in a state
to correspond with the latter condi-
tions. They also found taken as a
whole the roads in the Methow valley
Were state money has been gener-
ousousiy spent, were in better shape
than in any other part of the county.
Another object of the j1nketing trip
was to extend invitations to the tax
payers of all parts of tie county to
meet with the commissioners at Okla
hogan on Monday, October 4, for the
purpose of discussing and considering
ways and meaa3 of reducing the cost
of county government The commits
s!oners feel that retrenchments should
be made If meaGs can BE- discovered
whereby such retrenchmcnts can be
brought about without lesser ing the
efficiency of the various departments
| of the county government. They are
willing and ;nxious to hear sugges-
tions from representative tax payers,
and feel that it may be possible
through a general expression of opin-
ion to arrive at s,me solution of the
problem of ecolor y. 1t is not desired
that impracticablo or visionary plans
or ideas be injected ilto tn proceed
ings, but it IS hoped that these in at
tendance a,-d taking part may be able
to advance some practical business
ideas, tie application of which will
tend to curtail the steadily growing
annual expenditures. Tho commission
ers trust that as many business men,
farmers, professional men and others
from all part2 of the county as can
x,
cclmly, reasonably AMI Gispassionate-
ly consider and discuss this subject so
vitally impor AIT to tie public, and
through the accumulat;ve wisdom of
the body work out some feasible meth
cd to reach more economical expen-
diture of public money. 1t is the in
cntion to have every official present
to answer sucn gu ;s,iors as may be
propounded, explaining why there has
been so great an increase in the cost
of his departmc..t during the past five
RS, a'-d why he does not consider
his estimate for the cost of lis office
for the .nsu!rg Jear excessive.
Nothing practical may come of such
a meeting in tn, way of relief from
this steadily increasing lax burden,
but the commission els are showing
the right. spirit by expressing a desire
to consult with those who foot the
bills. 1t is the easiest thing in the
world to criticise and condemn, but an
extremely difficult matter to point out
ways and means to rectify that which
is condemned and criticised. Probably
not one in thousand of those out of
office could run an office any more
economically than those already in
office. There is no questioning
the fact that the prevailing belief is
that the public is paying high price
for county government, no one who
pays taxes can doubt that for a mo-
ment, yet the county officials, individ-
ually and collectively, may not be d.
rectly to blame for that high and
growing cost. 1t is indisputable how
ever, that no private business would
survive long with steady increase of
expenditures without corresponding
increase of resources, and that is just
where the county seems to be at just
at the present time. If, from a public
meeting some plan can be evolved to
improve this condition, why by all
means have the meeting, and make it
representative of all parts Of the coun-