New spending review good for the county

Fayette County officials will continue to struggle with its finances as they try to discontinue the trend of spending capital improvement funds for salaries. One policy change introduced on Tuesday appears to be a good step toward watching the county's spending.
Forever, county board committees, during a break in the regularly monthly meeting, would go through their respective bills for that month, then recommend payment of those bills to the full board.
On Tuesday, board Chairman Steve Knebel said that all board members will be asked to look over all of the county's bills in advance of the monthly meetings.
"Instead of three people looking over (the claims), we'll have 14 looking at them," Knebel said in announcing the policy change.
Knebel hopes that with the policy change, there will be a more-comprehensive scrutiny of the county's spending and, subsequently, some ideas on how the county might be able to spend its money more wisely.
Oftentimes, the operation of any office becomes so routine that expenditures are made without much thought, because things continue to be done as they always have in the past.
Thus far, the county's spending measures have included not replacing one employee who resigned. A closer watch on its day-to-day spending can hopefully be one measure to prevent any more position cuts, and maybe even restore the position that has been cut.
For months and months, county board member Wade Wilhour has preached that the county needs to be run like a business. In today's economic climate, many businesses are closely assessing their spending and taking action to reduce their expenditures. Hopefully, this new policy can be such a meaningful practice for the county.
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