OUR TURN: Unfunded mandates remain a burden

If you’re the boss, you don’t order your managers to pay out of their own pockets for office supplies, day-care costs for employees’ children and mileage.

That soon would lead to a workplace revolt.

But that’s exactly what the state of Texas asks local governments to do when legislators hand down legally binding but unfunded mandates and then expect school districts, cities and counties to pick up the check.

Unfunded mandates are programs or initiatives from the Legislature that local governments must operate without additional money from state coffers.

Or, they can take the form of programs the state once fully funded, only to later withdraw the money.

Either way, it leads to financial headaches for local governments.

These programs can include indigent health care and indigent legal defense, jail training and more.

In order to comply, local governments might have to increase fees or even raise taxes.

Or worse, cut funding for cherished programs — such as libraries or after-school activities.

That’s unfair, especially to local taxpayers who end up footing the bill.

What’s worse, the projected state budget deficit of $15 billion to $27 billion has lawmakers making noises that more unfunded mandates are on the way.

Yet there might be some relief on the horizon.

An amendment recently introduced by state Rep. Burt Solomons of Carrollton would prohibit unfunded mandates until the Legislature finds financial support from avenues other than county or other local government coffers.

There is little doubt most of the unfunded mandates are programs that offer plenty of benefits, often for the economically disadvantaged. But it’s also irresponsible to force counties into a position of raising taxes when the Legislature is unwilling to do the same to balance the out-of-kilter budget.

Burnet County commissioners should continue to seek solidarity with other county commissioners courts and lobby for passage of this bill.

Fuelberg’s punishment is just, sends message

Former Pedernales Electric Cooperative General Manager Bennie Fuelberg received the justice he deserved earlier this month when state District Judge Dan Mills gave him five years probation, 300 days in jail, 1,000 hours of community service and ordered him to pay $126,000 in restitution to an Austin law firm.

He was convicted on felony counts of theft, misapplication of fiduciary responsibility and money laundering.

The state argued that during a period of unbridled power, Fuelberg funneled up to $700,000 of co-op members’ money to his lobbyist brother and an attorney who is the son of a former PEC board member.

Fuelberg ran the co-op like a private feudal kingdom, but even worse, he betrayed the trust of thousands of Central Texans who had every right to expect solid leadership and honest policies from the top man at PEC.

Even well before the state Attorney General’s Office began its investigation, the media and PEC members began asking questions about financial irregularities at the co-op, ranging from lavish business trips to exorbitant salaries and a good-old-buddy system of virtually closed elections.

Because of such diligence, justice has been served.

Fuelberg’s punishment should send a message: Crime doesn’t pay, even when you’re the head honcho.