Tax Payer money and plenty of it

Reviewing the agenda for next Tuesday, I ran across an interesting budget amendment request.

At first glance, this request for $385,020.00 purports be due to an increase in the number of county prisoners housed elsewhere due to overcrowding. All taxpayers should be shocked that a one million dollar budget could be missed by more than 30%.

It gets worse

McLennan County documents are cryptic at best. It appears from the second page of the agenda item, the money was spent as of 3-13-2012. Expenses incurred were $385,020.00 over budget as of a WEEK before the Commissioners’ Court is scheduled to address the issue.

Another question

Of possibly greater concern is the fact that the above ledger does not reflect any expenditures for October or November. The county fiscal year begins October 1.

And the big question

If the total for the first half of the fiscal year is $1.38M, what are they going to do for the remainder of the year? Note the invoice dates above only reflect through 3/13/2012.

The rub

Looking at the documents above, is there any doubt who is paying for the new jail? The above figures are tax payer funds.