Wanted: An Open Budget Process

I attended last year’s Orleans County budget hearing and during the public forum segment of the hearing, I called on the Legislature to make the budget process more open. Apparently that call went ignored this year, as the budget process remained the same, closed process it has always been.

A PowerPoint presentation conducted by Chief Administrative Officer Chuck Nesbitt says that the budget process begins in June or July every year. That means the budget process is about five or six months long, depending on the start time. If you take into consideration that legislators serve a two-year term, that means they spend nearly half their time as elected officials working on a budget. That is significant.

According to CAO Nesbitt, it is mandated by the state that counties have their proposed budgets submitted by November 15. Obviously that is out of this county’s control, but I find that date to be convenient. Every year, November 15 comes after Election Day. That means counties can wait to submit a budget until after Election Day. So if you are going to raise taxes (like the Orleans County Legislature did last year), the November 15 deadline is truly convenient and helpful for elected officials who wish to remain in their seats.

During this long five or six month process, the public has only one opportunity to let its voices be heard on the budget and that comes at a public hearing, usually held in early December only days prior to the next Legislature meeting where they will pass the budget. For example, this year the budget hearing was held on Dec. 8. On Dec. 10, the Legislature took up the budget for a vote and passed the budget. This isn’t the only time the Legislature has appeared to not care about what the public says. In the past, they would pass local laws on the same day as the public hearing for said law. They finally changed that to make it appear that they actually listened to what you said by having the public hearing at one meeting and then holding the vote for the law at the next meeting.

But as it relates to the budget, the input of the taxpayers should be a must. After all, the taxpayers are the ones that are making up the difference (via the tax levy) for the increased spending that isn’t covered by revenues and surplus dollars.

I would hope that the Legislature reconsiders their current process and implements a much more open and citizen-friendly process that would include monthly or bimonthly meetings during the formation of the next year’s budget. Not only would it good to have input from the people covering the tab, but it would be good for government to allow citizens to see the budget process from beginning to end. Then, once the tentative budget is released and the final budget hearing comes at the end of the year, you will have citizens who know the situation and know what to expect in the budget, instead of having a budget full of surprises.