Stunt Budgeting in Howard County

Monday May 18, 2015

•  capital budgeting •  government finance •  Howard County •  public affairs •  public economics •  public financial management • 

While Hogan is criticized for illegally transferring money from the capital to the operating budget, we can see the same thing here in Howard County. New Howard County blogger, Jurgis Rudkus,1 addresses something similar here in Howard County:

Kittleman’s proposed budget takes $5 million in revenue from the sale of a piece of property and uses it to pay for operating expenses, half of it in the school budget of all places. That’s not fiscal responsibility; it’s the height of irresponsibility.

Property is purchased with capital funds. The proceeds from the purchase need to return to the capital budget, or go to paying off capital bonds. Stunt budgeting is the first sign someone ran for office, over-promised, and is now desperately trying to cover it at the expense of the voters.

Image by frankieleon.

  1. This is the best you could come up with, there, Clark Kent? ↩