County budget held up by color print job

Whitman County commissioners conducted their first public hearing on the county’s 2011 budget Monday night with one notable absence - the budget.

Commissioners Pat O’Neill and Greg Partch said they had not received a budget draft from Auditor Eunice Coker that could be used to finalize next year’s spending plan.

“You cannot look into the future, or even begin to plan, if you don’t have a good set of numbers,” said O’Neill. “A lot of other counties know they’re deep in the hole and people have got to leave.”

Whitman County is not to that point yet because, said O’Neill, of the delay in the budg...