Hell 2 Da Naw Naw Award: Killeen Budget Crisis
This week's award goes to The City of Killeen and its budget crisis which has caused the city council to make some tough decisions and could lead to people losing their jobs. Just to be clear, this award isn't for the CURRENT city council which has been forced to make the tough choices, but to those who held office in past administrations, finance directors, and mayors who insisted the city was in strong financial health when in reality it wasn't.
The city's budget is due in a matter of days, yet it wasn't until a few months ago that the shortfall was revealed to the public. Former city managers and mayors (who I won't name) kept insisting that the city was in strong financial health and kept spending and spending and passing the buck to the next administration.
While I applaud the current city council for being up front, it shouldn't have reached this point and now several city departments will have to have either budgets cut or in some cases, jobs will have to eliminated. All because certain city officials (who either withheld the information to make it to their retirement or left to seek higher office) didn't have the guts to be honest about the city's state of affairs. I also have to applaud our friends over at the Killeen Daily Herald for their reporting on this story and staying on top of it. Get them Bishop!