Every time you turn to the news, the media is full of examples of wasteful spending in our Federal government. Not so obvious is the wasteful spending in our county government.

Budget time is facing our Cherokee County’s Commissioner Court, and now is the time to express your feelings concerning issues which waste our hard earned dollars. I am specifically speaking of two issues.

Did you know Cherokee County pays for a library of hardbound books and also pays for internet access to the same resources? Why are commissioners wasting our money by paying for the same information from two sources? We also have an employee who is paid an additional yearly salary of $4,176. for maintaining the books in Cherokee County’s law library as well as a regular salary for being an indigent health clerk. Why are commissioners paying a person to maintain a law library when the internet access is all that is needed? You can see this salary for yourself on Cherokee County’s Web site at www.co.cherokee.tx.us, then Budgets on left side of screen.

Did you know that the county judge’s secretary makes $46,848 per year for performing two functions: secretary ($26,592) and software specialist ($20,256). How can one person perform the duty of setting in the office answering the County Judge’s telephone and also perform the duty of software specialist which requires troubleshooting computers in other county offices? Can you be in two places at the same time? Did you know that during the budget requests from each department, the fulltime information technology employee (who makes $48,528 per year) asked for another fulltime computer person to assist him? It seems to me that if the county judge’s secretary was doing her job as software specialist, another highly paid computer person would not be necessary. But why do we need a secretary and a computer employee in the same job? Seems counterproductive to me.

If you are tired of this type of wasteful spending, call your commissioner and your county judge to let them know how you feel. If you want to be a voice, attend the next budget hearing. Washington needs a total overhaul with new people. Perhaps those in charge of Cherokee County’s budget and who are running for office this year need to be more aware of their budget spending. If they ignore us or look at our concern as “none of our business,” then it is time to replace them with new people who want to serve the taxpayers’ interest by avoiding wasteful spending.

Josie D. Schoolcraft