As David Bass’s CJ exclusive about Chowan County reminds us yet again, government budgets are clear as mud for most citizens. The State Treasurer’s office has county and municipal financial information online, but I don’t know of a county that links to it. Two places to get this information are here and here.
Even if the budget they pass is unclear, Chowan County Commissioners could have found their annual financial reports for the past five years here. They might have needed to do a bit of digging to see if they were using the fund balance to pay operating expenses instead of capital expenses or if they were taking on more debt than they could carry on their tax base (or maybe the LGC could have done that).
| Fiscal Year |
Deficit | Fund Balance Available |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | -$ 1,985,986 | $21,663,584 |
| 2003 | -$ 1,692,469 | $18,949,683 |
| 2004 | -$ 3,182,011 | $14,830,355 |
| 2005 | -$ 3,064,553 | $10,732,025 |
| 2006 | -$ 3,514,634 | $ 6,275,060 |
| 2007 | -$ 3,844,620 | $ 3,131,504 |
Commissioners rely too much on the county manager and don’t do the math. Citizens are left to foot the bill.
