Published: March 20, 2008 11:06 pm            

Editorial: Serious consideration

Metro government must be looked at with eyes toward future

Editorial: Serious consideration

Metro government must be looked at with eyes toward future



Opinion: The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.





Small towns across West Virginia are struggling.

Many have long since given up trying to provide services like local police protection.

Others are trying to stretch limited revenue to keep police and street departments going.

And at the same time revenue is dwindling because of a loss of jobs and people — and consequently a smaller tax base — small municipalities are hit with rising fuel and energy costs, just like the rest of us.

It’s kind of ironic then that as they try to balance the books, along comes another expense — state audits.

A report from the state auditor’s office reveals many towns across the state haven’t been audited in years. And a lot of them say they just can’t afford to have audits done annually.

“We are a small town with a small budget,” Alderson clerk Jackie Villars said. “With a major hit in fuel and energy costs, it’s just not feasible that we could catch them up all at once.”

Alderson hasn’t had a completed audit since 2004.

“Hundreds of towns across the state would go over budget if they had to catch up on these audits all at once,” Villars added.

The state charges $4,000 to $5,000 for an audit, but there are only 32 state auditors and 235 municipalities. Local officials say there is a lack of competitive bids from private CPAs, and a state official says more and more CPA firms are getting out of the government auditing business.

“Without some help on the costs of these expensive audits, I think we will continue to see small towns get behind,” Villars said. “These annual audits are really placing a hardship on many small towns.”

It appears as if the door is being opened for potential mismanagement, and in some instances insolvency.

Which is all the more reason to take a look at metro government, where resources could be pooled and shared and the efficiency would translate into savings of taxpayer dollars.

It may very well benefit small towns that can hardly afford to spend money, let alone waste it.

Metro government is still a long way from catching on in most of West Virginia, and we still want to see more specifics about how it will work. You could say the jury is still out.

But it’s a concept that merits serious consideration.

        

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