Public They May Be, But in Name Only

Based on newsroom discussions about the public’s sentiments about municipal and school budgets, we wonder: Does anybody really care? We are of the old school of journalism that emphasized, when government puts its hand into your wallet to take out your hard-earned loot that was news. Maybe “we,” the people are so numbed by the constant feel of that hand in the back pocket; we are willing to ignore it. Watch out!
Maybe the real trouble is the size of budgets. They are massive, larger than anything most of us will ever experience, so we just cannot comprehend the numbers.
There is an apparent disconnect between the average wage earner-reader and the stories we write. Numbers bandied about by municipal auditors will continue to affect our readers’ lives, or at least their bank accounts. Therefore, somebody should care.
Maybe they do, but feel powerless to do anything about it.
Consider this: When the county freeholders held their hearing on the $140-million budget to keep the wheels of government rolling here until next year, there was one person who rose to speak, and that was not so much a protest as a request — denied — to take $1 million from a $12-million surplus to fund an investigative panel.
The denial came as no surprise, because the person who asked posed a similar request a fortnight prior, and was told then there was no chance it would happen.
Regardless, that was the only query placed before the five-member governing body.
Granted it takes a certain degree of intestinal fortitude to stand before a public body and asked informed questions about anything. Many people could stand to question expenditures, but do not, fearing their inquiries will make them look foolish in their peers’ eyes.
Having suffered through too many such budget sessions to count, I can understand part of the problem, and maybe the reason for apathy displayed as much on the public’s part as of those sitting in front of the masses.
Budgets, although legally spread before the public for scrutiny, are not really meant to be understood by the common person. They are cloaked more in mystery than an Agatha Christie murder novel.
The person who confronted freeholders at the March 10 hearing also asked, how much money was used to spray for mosquitoes?
Director Daniel Beyel’s reply, “The same amount as last year.”
Yes, it was an answer, albeit not the one that truly answered the question.
Unashamed, the inquisitor asked how much that was. Well, the answer was not made public at the session.
Thus, the future of such questions may be in doubt. Why ask if you can’t get a straight answer? Why waste time and gas to go to the hearing if there is no real chance of changing anyone’s mind to amend the budget?
I will go so far as to state that, in my three decades in this profession, I do not recall ever having the budget amended in any way after a public hearing.
Maybe that needs to change. Maybe the entire way government is funded needs to be examined, and really opened up to the public for an airing.
A group of volunteers has focused on Cape Issues, and, of course, one of the top concerns is taxes and budgets. The group has endeavored to get a copy of every municipal budget and understand where the money goes. Some of those men have great experience dealing with municipal and governmental issues.
They did not find it easy to get the figures they needed, even though such information is “public.”
Once in hand, there are nondescript line items that likely are pools of dollars just waiting to be spent, secreted out of the public’s eye.
It’s all public money, why can’t the public see it?
With all the “transparency” that the Internet provides, and it is a great tool to allow the people greater access to their governments on all levels, it is still extremely difficult to get the answers to questions asked about government expenditures.
School budgets are no better, although they, along with those of fire districts, are the only budgets the public actually gets to cast a vote for or against.
Since the economy has everyone’s attention, maybe this is a good time to start demanding changes in the way we get to examine and comment on budgets. Maybe there ought to be a readily accessible means of amending a budget at a public hearing.
Government should go out of its way to seek real input and assist us publishing executive summaries of budgets. Shareholders in public corporations get them annually, why not from the government? Are we not all shareholders in it?
Those who ask questions ought not to feel ashamed or stupid for asking. In fact, they ought to be revered by their fellow citizens for standing and asking questions that were, perhaps, gray areas that no one understood.
How many times has it been stated, “There is no such thing as a dumb question?”
That ought to be the sentence proclaimed at the outset of every public budget hearing. Could it be that those who sit in positions of public trust fear those “dumb questions” only because they might utter a “dumb answer