Taxpayers: expect more, demand more

A devastating bookkeeping error was made in 2004 at the county level. It is easy to connect the dots between then and now to understand how this mistake contributed to the massive financial crisis the county is currently (and excruciatingly) experiencing. The act of misreporting the amount in the general fund to the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) that year, and subsequent years of like errors, significantly changed the course of Carroll County history.

But it didn't have to be this way. There is an Indiana law that directs the county auditor and treasurer to balance the accounts between the two offices monthly. Current auditor Beth Myers and treasurer Jane Brewington have not followed that law. The money problems now are the result of that decision.

It was, and continues to be, a conscious choice on the part of these two elected officials. It might have been a mistake the first month they were in office (January 2003). But after 63 months of not balancing the books, it can no longer be considered a "mistake." It is a choice. Where would the county be now had that choice been different?

But there's more. During the exit conference for the State Board of Accounts (SBOA) audit of the 2003 county finances, then commissioners' president Bill Brown and then council president Rob Baker, along with the auditor and the treasurer, were told the books did not balance. (SBOA reports indicated the results of the audit were shared with the county leaders and when.) They were told it was against the law for the auditor's and treasurer's books to not balance. They said nothing, they did nothing.

The same message was given each year thereafter. Loren Hylton (the commissioners' president since 2007) and Baker heard a repeat of the information just last summer in the latest exit interview…yet the situation has been allowed to continue. Hylton confronted the auditor at one commissioners meeting but nothing was done and nothing changed.

An outspoken county council member recently said privately, "We've put up with wrong so long, we think it's right."

This simple and clear statement strikes a chord as the purest and most honest truth in the county.

Taxpayers, you do not have to put up with "wrong." You can demand officeholders do their jobs. You can readily understand what happens when they do not.

The DLGF is not the county police. They approved budgets for the past four years based on inflated numbers. The consequence - the county has been spending more than it has been taking in.

The council is trying to make budget appropriations work for 2008, but they are still working with questionable numbers.

How long are you going to ask the council to butt its collective head against a brick wall?

How much longer are you going to sit still and not demand that public officials do the right thing?

After all, you pay the bills.