The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1959-05-22

AS Lie SOunty Z1NNO0tASetAAo ~
ceives the budget request from
each department he is supposed to
review it carefully and REDUCE
\ any items which he feels are not
necessary, or are not in line with
similar items in other departments.
On or before July 7th, but only
after he has carefully checked all
items in the budget, the County
Accountant is required to submit
the final budget recommendation to
the Board of Commissioners. The
recommendation he submits should
show for each item the amount
spent in the preceding year, the
amount budgeted in the current
year, the amount recommended by
the department head for the COM
ing year, and his own recommend
alton for the coming year.
i With this detailed material in
hand the Board of Commissioners
should sit down with the County
Accountant and go over every item
in the budget. When the time
comes to consider the tax super
visor's office, for example, the tax
supervisor should be called in to
explain his budget in the presence
of the Commissioners and the
County Accountant, and the same
procedure should be followed with
the proposed budget for each de-
partment.
In the course of these meetings
the County Accountant should eX-
plain to the Commissioners the
financial status of each depart
ment, and should specifically point
out whether there is an accumu-
lated surplus or deficit from pre-
ceding years in each fund, so they
can take into consideration the
overall county fiscal situation.
Finally, after going over all this
material and making changes
wherever they feel they are nee
essary, the Commissioners should,
on or before July 18th, give final
approval to the budget with a
formal budget resolution, and
copy of the adopted budget should
be supplied to each Department
head.
The determination of the neces-
sary tax rate should then be made
by the County Accountant; but the
tax rate should be determined by
the needs of the budget, and not
by the political desires of the COM
missioners.
That is the way the budget
should be prepared, but because it
has not been prepared that way in
the past we are now faced with
the following situations:
/. At the time we took office
few if any of the department
heads actually knew what their
budget was for the current year,
The Superintendent Of Welfare, for
example, apparently was operat-
ing on the basis of the recon-
mended budget, rather than on the
budget actually adopted by the
Board of Commissioners.
2. The budget for the current
year, as has happened so frequent
ly in the past, was cut so low that
there was no margin or surplus
left for additional expenses which
might arise during the course of
the year, or for taking care OF UNI
paid bills carried over from the
preceding year, or for reductions
in taxes as the result of last years
reassessment, or for a failure to-
collect 1000 of the taxes levied.
To give specific examples OF
each of the above, We now find
that the salary of the prosecuting
attorney was raised from 81 ,14O
to $1,000 after the budget was
adopted; that the Chairman OF
the Board of Elections, Jack Til
lett, has actually spent $3O7.O9 as
against the budgeted amount OF
$4,000, but that an additional
1925 was paid November a, 1858
to his predecessor for services as
chairman during the last fiscal
year; that the assessment in At
lantic Township alone was lowered
several million dollars after the
adoption of the budget; and that
$40, 453.40 of anticipated taxes still
had not been collected at the end
of March.
8. The budget for the current
year, which we inherited, failed to
make any provision for paying off
an accumulated deficit of $82 $780,
% in the general fund and health
fund, or smaller deficits in other
funds. Most Of this was mnoey
collected through the years for
other purposes and improperly
spent for general fund purposes.
One result, for example, is that
practically all of the cash remain