The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1959-05-22
COUNTY
REPORT
DAVID STICK
Dare County Commissioner,
Atlonfie township

Budget time is here again, pre-
senting the Board of Commission
ers with its greatest challenge to
date.
We face the choice of preparing
the 1959-60 budget in the same
manner that budgets have been
prepared in Dare County for years,
and of ending up doing little or
nothing to straighten out the tang
led financial affairs; or we can de-
mand that all parties follow the
budgeting procedures required by
staae law, and thus make start
at least toward Strengthening
things out.
The first course is the easy one,
for it requires comparatively little
work and involves stepping on few
if any toes. But the second calls
for extra meetings by the Board
of Commissioners and extra work
by all department heads, and will
almost certainly result in grumb-
ling, complaints and resistance on
the part of established county Off
Gals.
In recent weeks l have spent a
lot of time trying to understand
Just how the Dare County budget
has been prepared in the past, and
comparing the Dare system with
the method prescribed by the laws
of the state. l find tremendous
difference between the two, and the
remainder of this report will con-
stitute a sort of brief on the SUBJ
ject, designed to bring these diff
ferences to the attention of my
fellow commissioners, the various
county employees and officials
who are involved, and interested
citizens and taxpayers.
Here is how Dare County bud
gets have been prepared for as
long as most people around the
courthouse can remember:
First the County Accountant
asks each department head wheth-
er he wants any changes in his
budget. The Accountant then
draws up the new budget for each
department, and presents the COM
plete budget to the Board of Com
missioners. The Commissioners
then go over the proposed budget
item by item, making changes
where they feel they are neces-
sary, and when the budget is in
final shape they ask the County
Accountant to determine what tax
rate would be required to raise
the necessary money. If the tax
rate figure is higher than the one
they want to levy the Commission
ers 60 back again and make fur
theer cuts until they get it down
to where they want it.
On the surface this seems a log
ical procedure. Here, however, is
how county budgets are supposed
to be prepared.
Each department head is requir-
ed to prepare his own recommend
ed budget for the coming year on
a standard form used by all other
department heads, and he is sup
posed to show for each budgeted
item not only what he wants the
figure to be for next year, but
exactly what was budgeted for the
current year, and exactly what was
spent for the preceding year.
There are exceptions to this, of
which the most important is prob
ably the welfare budget. In that
instance the law requires the
County Welfare Board to submit
proposed budget to the Commits
sioners, and for the Commissioners
to transmit this and their own
proposed welfare budget to the
State Board of Welfare prior to
May 1st. Apparently there has
been some attempt to follow the
law in this regard, but this year
for example the welfare board did
not submit its, recommended bud
get to the commissioners until May
4th, and the commissioners in turn
still have not forwarded the re-
uuired material to Raleigh.)
Next, each department head is
supposed to submit his budget re-
quest to the County Accountant
7arior to limo LET The County Ac-
countant is supposed to be the fl
nancial watchdog for the county.
His job is roughly comparable to
the Director of the Budget for the
State or Federal governments. In
many counties he is a full-time Of
fetal, but in Dare the job of Coun-
ty Accountant is simply one of