Opinion - Oh, well. It is just money.

2010 was the year of money. From private citizens to the federal government, money, or more precisely the lack of it, shaped nearly every decision and conversation. Finances and making ends meet became very serious business.

Something different has been happening in Whitman County. There seems to be a cavalier attitude about money here. Sure, everybody talks about money, but it just doesn’t seem to be all that important.

Take for instance the county the government. The county lost track of some of its cash. Estimates ranged from around half a million dollars to two hundred thousand dollars in missing funds. Eventually, around two hundred thousand was written off as untraceable and untrackable. That is after thousands of dollars more in outside fees were paid to try to find out how much was actually missing.

Oh, well. Now at least the books are balanced.

Lost forever too is the money used to keep track of the money. The five-year long saga of the New World accounting system is not over. The final price tag for getting the software up and running, not including the hiring of two separate financial managers and the trauma of eventually establishing two accounting offices, may well exceed three quarters of a million dollars.

Oh, well. Live and learn.

Just across Mill Street the City of Colfax seems to have a similar attitude. It is contemplating across the board raises for its employees. A 2.5 percent increase is in the works. The city can afford the raises because a higher paid employee is retiring and will supposedly be replaced by a lower paid employee. The difference (perhaps once called savings) can now be spread around to all the other employees. This while the city wants increases in water and sewer charges and, more important, faces more than a half million dollars in claims and expenses for the aborted firing of Fire Chief Ralph Walter.

Oh, well. It is just money.

The problem is that it just isn’t their money.

Oh, well.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher