Columns & Opinions
Working on the budget for 2024
When we came into office in January, I met with all the department heads and then explained that we would be working on the budget starting in February with the goal of being about 80% complete by the time we had the public hearings for budget proposals in early July. We did that and this Monday, County Auditor Danica Lara and I finished up with the figures for the 2024 budget. We are now working on the summary sheets to have the budget out hopefully before this newspaper hits the newsstands. The Budget process is a long, tedious road that takes in the needs of the various departments to do their jobs, the welfare of our county employees, and the taxpayer’s desire for an affordable, efficient, and effective government in order to be successful.
Bipartisan immigration reform needed
U.S. immigration policy has been badly broken for more than two decades. Attempts by former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to craft reasonable, sweeping immigration policies stalled, then cratered under the weight of partisan opposition in Congress from the party not in the White House.