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On Monday night, the Honesdale Borough council voted to reopen the 2012 budget. This was no surprise since the group said that was a top priority.
Also during the meeting, the council presented its updated budget and said the next morning it would be made available to the public — free of charge.
When digging through the budget, we found many interesting and noteworthy changes. Many of those are outlined in a story on today’s front page. They range from slicing once again the salary of the zoning officer to trying to work out the budget for the police department.
The list also goes into many smaller details, including a close look by the new members of every line item. In some, there are small savings from the budget approved by the previous council. Added up, there is significant savings. They also found some items which were missing, including a major one involving pensions.
But along the way, there was one item in particular which caught our attention.
It is under the line item of donations. The total amount is $400.
The item is for an annual donation toward the Memorial Day parade conducted in Honesdale. The previous council had voted to eliminate that $400 from the budget. The new council reinstated the line item.
Doing the math, $400 amounts to .0001586 percent of the total budget. That’s pretty minuscule.
But as has been noted, $400 is $400 and it all adds up.
In this case, though, the new council has made the correct decision.
They were elected to go in and try to clean up a real mess left behind by the last group. But elimination of $400 to support a patriotic parade is not the way to get that done. Even though it’s just numbers, in this case, it is much more. It’s about human beings and that is also part of the charge of elected officials.
Small-town parades are a tradition as old as Wayne County itself. In this case, it’s a coming together of the folks in the area to honor those in the military but also to visit and have fellowship. That’s worth more than $400.
And if you look even further into the matter, it’s probably safe to say that $400 actually makes money for the business owners of Honesdale who most likely see an increase of sales before and after the parade.
It’s money well spent.
We applaud the council for recognizing the human side of the budgeting process. It’s not always an easy thing to do, especially given the circumstances they inherited this budget.
On Monday night, the Honesdale Borough council voted to reopen the 2012 budget. This was no surprise since the group said that was a top priority.
Also during the meeting, the council presented its updated budget and said the next morning it would be made available to the public — free of charge.
When digging through the budget, we found many interesting and noteworthy changes. Many of those are outlined in a story on today’s front page. They range from slicing once again the salary of the zoning officer to trying to work out the budget for the police department.
The list also goes into many smaller details, including a close look by the new members of every line item. In some, there are small savings from the budget approved by the previous council. Added up, there is significant savings. They also found some items which were missing, including a major one involving pensions.
But along the way, there was one item in particular which caught our attention.
It is under the line item of donations. The total amount is $400.
The item is for an annual donation toward the Memorial Day parade conducted in Honesdale. The previous council had voted to eliminate that $400 from the budget. The new council reinstated the line item.
Doing the math, $400 amounts to .0001586 percent of the total budget. That’s pretty minuscule.
But as has been noted, $400 is $400 and it all adds up.
In this case, though, the new council has made the correct decision.
They were elected to go in and try to clean up a real mess left behind by the last group. But elimination of $400 to support a patriotic parade is not the way to get that done. Even though it’s just numbers, in this case, it is much more. It’s about human beings and that is also part of the charge of elected officials.
Small-town parades are a tradition as old as Wayne County itself. In this case, it’s a coming together of the folks in the area to honor those in the military but also to visit and have fellowship. That’s worth more than $400.
And if you look even further into the matter, it’s probably safe to say that $400 actually makes money for the business owners of Honesdale who most likely see an increase of sales before and after the parade.
It’s money well spent.
We applaud the council for recognizing the human side of the budgeting process. It’s not always an easy thing to do, especially given the circumstances they inherited this budget.
