Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Lies, boldfaced lies and accounting

In my opinion, the keepers of money -- accountants -- have mastery of information that would hornswoggle a rocket scientist. When they are government accountants, they hornswoggle under color of law. Or, as the used car salesman said, "It's all perfectly legal."
If hornswoggling by government accountants were false, then this newpaper article from Tallahassee would never appear.
Fuzzy math in new tax plan?
June 19, 2007, Paige St. John, Tallahassee Democrat
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU
City and county government officials are accusing Gov. Charlie Crist of deliberately putting out false information in an effort to win property-tax cuts.
They're reacting to Crist's assertion that local governments are fighting property-tax cuts even as they sit atop $9 billion in reserves. Local officials say the governor's "reserves" are grossly inflated, lumping general-fund reserves from unspent property taxes with other pools of money, including debt reserves and money for construction projects...
"I will refrain from calling them boldfaced lies," said Rockledge's upset city administrator, Dave Henderson. He said he had $6.3 million in reserves, less than half of the $14.7 million claimed by Crist's office.

Mutual aspersions and accusations. Lies, boldfaced lies and accounting. Tsk tsk. Government accountants should serve the public, or, as the truism goes → "We're from the government and we're here to help."
BRAINWAVE: Maybe they could hire Theresa Lepore as a consultant to straighten out this accountant ruction.