You know your city government is in trouble when its people are so incompetent that they can’t even balance their checkbook and come up short by $420,000 one month. That’s the current situation in Oakridge, Ore.
For a small city with an annual budget of only $3 million, a mistake of $420,000 is a pretty big deal. Because the city adopted its budget based on faulty information, it starting spending money based on the new budget — only to find itself going broke when the income wasn’t matching the outgo.
The city is currently seeking a loan to cover the shortfall, but the city’s planning commissioner — an unpaid position — is out soliciting local citizens to lend the city the money if banks turn them down. The city says it’s just “Plan B.”
At least one local man wasn’t happy to be asked to lend money to the clowns at City Hall. “Why would I loan them money if they can’t even balance their checkbook each month?” asked 87-year-old Eddie Roberts.