That's the essence of it.

It's and Evening News "jeer" about Clark County, but merely change a few numbers and it's applicable to Floyd County, too. Our county council spent a few hot minutes contemplating LOIT before abdicating its responsibility to lead and fleeing to the hills. It will be interesting to see if Clark County's does the same.

JEERS

... to Clark County’s budget woes. According to the most recent County Council budget meeting, there is as much as a $5.8 million gap in the requested budget — $18.7 million — and expected 2010 revenues — $12.9 million.

The county is finally discussing implementing a Local Option Income Tax, or LOIT, which would help, although not much for 2010. The question is, what took so long?

The answer is simple. When the state hamstrung local taxing entities with property tax reform and caps, it offered LOIT to the counties as a way to offset lost revenues.

With that, state lawmakers could say during election season, “we handled your property tax problem and didn’t raise taxes.”

The result is the county council now must raise taxes and take the fall for the state, because cutting one third of staff or services isn’t feasible.

— Editor Shea Van Hoy