County Commission Makes History With Budget

The Sumner County Commission made history this week, passing both the school and general purpose budgets BEFORE the start of the fiscal year (July 1) for the first time anyone can remember or demonstrate by record.

Of course, this historic moment comes after extremely contentious budget cycles in 2011 and 2012.  And less than a year before the May 2014 primary elections for County Commission.  Perhaps Commissioners believe citizens will forget their unwillingness to fund schools in the past?

It's worth noting that the fact that this is historic means the Commission has been neglecting its duties for years.  The School Boards of the past helped, too, of course -- not getting budgets to the Commission in a timely fashion.

The past two years, however, the School Board has delivered its budget early, making needs known in April, passing a budget plan in May.  This year, not a single County Commissioner attended the School Board's May budget meeting -- despite the schools being the single largest county-funded program.

Some have suggested the process can't be done too much earlier, because estimated final budget numbers would mean the School Board would end up operating with additional funds in reserve.

Here's what happens now, though:  The School Board operates with the MINIMUM amount of reserves allowed by state law.  Roughly enough to keep schools open for 7-10 days. That means in the event of a disaster requiring expenditure of funds, the Board would have a tough time making ends meet. 

Of course, the alternative would be to present the budget earlier, use even more conservative numbers, and increase the reserve balance after the books are closed for the fiscal year.  IF both the Board and the County Commission are comfortable operating with the MINIMUM reserves allowed by law, the Board can simply include the reserve overage in the next year's budget.  Alternatively, the Board could set a goal of having reserves totaling 10% of operating costs and then spend any excess toward the next year's budget. 

The lesson this year, though, is that the budget process doesn't have to work the way it has in ALL those years before 2013.  It CAN work smoothly and be passed on time IF the goal is the development and funding of excellent schools that benefit the entire community.