Painful choices

We don’t envy our local officials.

School board members, city council members, county commissioners and water board members are beginning work on their respective budgets for Fiscal Year 2010.

Crafting a budget won’t be easy this year.

We still haven’t talked to a local official who believes budgeting for FY 2010 will be cake. We bet some officials would rather have a root canal.

It’s easy to understand why. To quote a phrase from Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

We learned last weekend that Barbour County’s unemployment rate is at 9.9 percent. That’s better than the previous few months, but still painfully high.

And unfortunately for governmental entities, when people don’t work, they don’t spend money.

Sales tax revenues for the City of Eufaula are down slightly compared to 2008. Yet we’re faring better than most communities.

The Quitman County Board of Education is bracing for tight times. One reason is that funding the system receives from sales tax revenues has declined sharply since 2007.

And while stimulus money could eventually help some local entities, it’s coming in slowly.

So what will happen with the 2010 budgets? We don’t know.

Read more of Patrick’s editorial in the midweek edition of The Tribune avaliable Tuesday, May 26.