Op-Ed By L. Scott Bennett, Graham County Attorney
As Graham County Attorney, I spend my days working alongside our sheriff’s deputies, courthouse employees, and prosecutors to keep this county safe.
I see firsthand what they need to do the job well. I also see how badly our county’s hands are tied by a budget rule written before many of our staffers were born.
Graham County’s base expenditure limit was set in 1979-1980. That’s not a typo.
For nearly half a century, the maximum amount our county has been legally allowed to spend each year has been anchored to a budget from a different era: before cell phones, before modern crime labs, and before the equipment, training, and staffing that public safety requires today.
I wish more than anything we could still run the Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Office and courthouse on a 1980s budget. But that world is gone, and pretending otherwise puts our community at risk.
This November, voters have a chance to fix our outdated spending limit with Proposition 404.
I want to be clear: Prop 404 does not raise taxes. Sales and property tax rates will remain the same. You won’t be charged a single additional dollar.
What it does is allow Graham Count...