Those of us of ‘an age’ should remember the Looney Tunes cartoons we watched on Saturday mornings. In one of the cartoons Willoughby, the fox hunting dog, famously said repeatedly, “Which way did he go? Which way did he go George?”.
Watching the Patrick County Board of Supervisors stumble through the budget process reminded me of the Looney Tunes series and Willoughby. Not only has it been cartoonish to watch, but also entailed a bit of ‘loonacy!’ The start and the finish went like this. Lock Boyce said he had no idea how the county spent so much money while he was chairman of the BOS. Rickie Fulcher, current chairman, ended the process with the seemingly congratulatory comment of “We do not know where the rest of the money ($940,000) is coming from.”
Where it went and where it is coming from should not be unknowns. It is a little too much suspense for me!
Borrowing from Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam:
Yosemite Sam: Are you tryin’ to make me look like a fool?!
Bugs Bunny: You don’t need me to make you look like a fool.
Yosemite Sam: You’re darn right, I don’t!
So where will the mysterious “other million” come from? In the words of Elmer Fudd, “Come on, Wover boy, Wets go hunting.”
We know that no year over year spending reductions were made and none of the deficit will be reduced by spending reductions during the fiscal year. How do we know this? Because if there were real reductions in year over year spending, we would have seen and heard from a parade of the “victims” at the last BOS meeting. We know no other budget cuts will be made because once the budget is approved Boyce and Weiss have to pander for re-election. Nothing for Wover to “hunt up” on the spending cuts trail.
Perhaps Wover can have more luck on the revenue trail. He seems to be on a scent. Yep sure enough he may be cold trailing a bit, but he can still sniff the $1.7M tax increase that was used to reduce the 2020 deficit from $3.3M. His nose is leading him down the trail to another tax increase for 2021 of at least 8-10 cents to close the remaining 2020 deficit of $940,000 and cover any inflationary increases. Indeed, the trail is hot! Wover is baying and it is not at the moon!
The ‘loonacy’ of never-ending spending increases leading to never ending tax increases is not sustainable! Spending will have to be reduced.
Rather than continue to watch Looney Tunes I would much prefer to watch Merrie Melodies!
That’s all folks!
Bill Moore
Woolwine
