Watch List Indeed

Recently the Herald Times ran an editorial indicating some of the ongoing mismanagement of the Auditor’s office. Their editorial was concluded by indicating the Auditor’s office should be watched closely and they even went so far as to suggest the County Council should not rule out the possibility of calling in an outside agency to review or even perform an audit of the misdeeds of Sandy Newman’s office. With the control of the Auditor’s office tightly in the clinches of the left wing neophytes running the Council the likelihood of that occurring is about as likely as Rush Limbaugh turning into a flaming liberal. The likes of Stoops and Travis have been pulling the strings on the Auditor’s office since Newman took office in ’05. Newman’s lack of understanding in running the Auditor’s office shouldn’t come as a surprise because she has had absolutely no experience in the office she currently holds. The citizens of Monroe County are getting exactly what they asked for so if blame is going around shame on the voters for electing her in the first place.

If it weren’t bad enough that since she has taken office Newman’s blundering has created chaos for businesses and citizens of Monroe County she has never once taken responsibility for her actions. She always has someone else doing all of the talking and when she does speak its only to point the blame in someone else’s direction. Come on, we didn’t hire the Deputy Auditor and we sure as hell didn’t hire the Auditor’s staff, she did. So why can’t she assume any of the responsibility? Let’s face it; she is way out over her skis! While on the subject of being way out over their skis did you get a stomach full of Sophia Travis and Andy Ruff being a part in the frivolous lawsuit against I-69? Travis, the poster child for the right wing extremist allowed herself to once again be used to defend the ludicrous position of small minority of vocal individuals that can’t seem to grasp the realities of simple economics. Their only hope is to throw as many obstacles as possible in the way of progress in an attempt to disrupt and delay the process as much as possible when in fact the only thing it is going to do is create additional hardship on the tax paying citizens of the State of Indiana. It is shameful that elected officials are making the assumption that they can speak for all of Monroe County by lending their names and titles to such a laughable lawsuit. If they would only expend that much energy and put that much emphasis in fulfilling their responsibilities as elected officials we would all be much better off.

Another report that has filtered out of the County Council recently is that they’re patting themselves on the back and taking credit for managing to cut the operating budget for 2007. Now the real story, they managed to set the budget for 2007 just a tick under 2006 however, they also managed to borrow two million dollars that will have to be repaid. The reality or net effect is a budget that is two million dollars higher than this year’s with the uncertainty of the revenue figures that support the budget that was recently passed. Furthermore the employees of Monroe County had to forgo even a basic cost of living increase all the while the cash reserves will be tapped to shore up the Council’s spending. I think voters are beginning to see for themselves what a mess they have created by electing individuals without any relevant work experience and you know it must be bad when the liberal editorial staff of the Herald Times puts the public on notice and the Auditor’s office on their watch list! Looks like it's about time to elect a few Republicans to get our house back in order.