COUNTY COUNCILS ‘LEANER’ BUDGET: READ IT AND WEEP, TAXPAYERS!

Noozhawk dutifully reported this week that the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, in a moment of apparently stark panic, somehow managed to approve a “leaner” $1.66 billion budget. Yes, billion. One has to wonder what they consider 'fat,' considering the last few years have felt more like a budgetary all-you-can-eat buffet on the taxpayer dime. For months, whispers about an imminent fiscal cliff have been floating around the county administration like cheap chardonnay at a public function, and now, *gasp*, they've decided to act.

The Supervisors, bless their well-funded hearts, have cut “millions” as they prepare for “uncertain economic waters.” Translation: The gravy train is slowing down, and they want to make sure they're the last ones to jump off with a full belly. It’s almost touching, really, to see them feign surprise that the constant expansion of departments, the ever-increasing consultant fees, and the gold-plated benefits package for every mid-level bureaucrat might eventually catch up to a region that’s already taxed to the hilt. We’ve seen this movie before, folks, and it always ends with the same credit roll: 'Featuring: Your Hard-Earned Dollars.'

What Noozhawk's polite prose misses, of course, is the sheer audacity of calling a $1.66 billion spending plan “lean.” Most residents are watching their own household budgets shrink like a forgotten swimsuit in the dryer, while our local government still operates with more zeroes than a lottery ticket. The real story isn't the 'cuts' they’ve made, but the astounding amount of cash they *still* manage to blow. Follow the money from those endless ‘community outreach’ programs, the 'equity and inclusion' czars, and the various feel-good, do-nothing committees, and you’ll see where ‘leaner’ really means ‘less obscene.’ The real question isn't how they approved a leaner budget, but why it took the threat of economic armageddon for them to even consider it.