A time for backbones of steel (Aug. 21)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
This has been an arduous week of hearings for the Madera County Board of Supervisors. Their job was to cut the present fiscal year’s operating budget, and lay the foundation for cutting next year’s as well. And they still have to borrow $10.7 million to balance the budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010.
It was not a dilemma of their making. Madera County has never been accused of being an uber-spender. If it had, like other counties in the Valley, it might have been forced to do even more cutting and borrow more money.
State budget woes caused financial shocks for the county. Sources of funding for social services, such as those provided for mental health, pretty much dried up. Without the resources to pay for those services, the county had to let many welfare workers go, and many recipients of their aid will go without.
On top of that, the state started forcing local municipalities to lend it tax dollars that normally get sent back to cities and counties.
The local economy didn’t help, either, With property values dropping, property tax collections have gone down, too. Sales tax collections have dropped.
For the supervisors and county Chief Administrative Officer Stell Manfredi and his staff, it was a week of reading and discussing a litany of budget items taking money away from programs and departments which have benefited Madera County citizens for years.
Little was left untouched, unless financed by outside funds that could be used no other way.
When the blood-letting was all over and the votes had been taken, Manfredi complimented the supervisors.
“You have backbones of steel,” he told them, praising them for solving problems they had no part in causing.
They should remember that. In a few months they may have to go through the process again if the economy doesn’t improve.
