LETTER from DAN CROWELL

In September, Budget Is

Always Out Of Balance;

By Year’s End, Balanced

To the Editor:

I hope all is well in our hometown!

I saw your article (“Treasurer Warns Of Overages, But Chair Unruffled,” Sept. 20 on www.All- OTSEGO.com) on the budget gap. For what it is worth, in some ways the county treasurer and county board chair’s perspectives are portrayed as divergent. However, from my experience, they are both right.

There is no black magic that can resolve the gap (treasurer), but it is not time to panic (chair).

For the eight years I was engaged in the budget process, there was typically a gap at this time of year, ranging between $2 million to $12 million depending on the year.

September, October and November are busy months with methodical and detailed review, reduction and adjustment, ideally in deep consultation with the departmental leadership.

There is no magic and there is no silver bullet expenditure to cut.

It is a compilation of scrutiny on hundreds of line items across the spectrum of operations and magnitude of cost.

They have good people on both sides of the aisle working on it and I am sure they will address the gap.

DAN CROWELL

A former county treasurer, Crowell is deployed
to Somalia with the
Army Reserves.