Dear Editor:
Did you know that our county has a trust fund? It’s called the CCTIF, and is a sizable pot of money for Rio Blanco County created years ago, by foresighted and honest county leaders. Wisely, they put specific guidelines in place to ensure that publicly funded groups (schools, libraries, fire stations) in Rio Blanco County would have a chance to apply for specific tangible projects. They also were smart enough to put restrictions ensuring that “only interest” would be spent, leaving the principal to provide a savings account for future needs and generations.
Now our county commissioners are proposing to bypass these guidelines and dig into principal to allocate the largest amount ever spent out of this fund $4 million.
To put this into perspective, the entire spending budget that commissioners approved for Rio Blanco this year is $37 million (with only $25 million estimated in revenue). This years spending will be $7 million more than last year…a big increase and another year where the county spends way more than it collects. This is a situation that all of us try to avoid in our personal finances and those who don’t like excessive government spending.
To date, the commissioners have ignored the guidelines which they are supposed to follow, never mind follow them (not inviting our schools and libraries and other groups to apply), and no public input has been sought.
Even more incredible, the application for the grant, $4 million, had not even been completed or submitted when they proposed spending this, and as of this writing, is not available anywhere for public view so may not even exist yet.
If you care about out of control spending, following guidelines, and giving every taxing entity in our county a chance to put their applications in before spending decisions are made, please make plans to attend the County Commission meeting this coming Tuesday, April 12 in Meeker, and be part of the solution.
These dollars belong not just to us but to our future generations. Who knows what lies ahead for our county or our country? Spending more than we collect is not a recipe for fiscal preparation. Fiscal responsibility means following guidelines and getting public input. Make sure your voice is heard.
Deirdre Macnab
Rio Blanco County
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