EDITORIAL: County council oversight must come with authority

The Journal & Courier

A law approved by state lawmakers earlier this year mandated that the county council review the budgets of other entities in the county.

Although touted as a reform measure that would restrain the spend-happy practices of local government, the law did not give the council any real authority over the budgets.

And our guess is that council members were happy about that.

After all, why would they want the power to nix or approve budgets for agencies, people and services over which they have no control?