[EDITORIAL] Pinal County budget battles

Pinal CountyCasa Grande Dispatch

(Editor’s note: Opinion pieces are published for discussions purposes only.)

Pinal County government’s budget involves some serious money, more than a third of a billion dollars a year. Not surprisingly, the budget process sometimes means conflict.

A disagreement between at least some members of the Board of Supervisors, which sets the annual budget, and the two elected officials who head up law enforcement has grown into a sizable confrontation. This calls for more citizen awareness.

Some in-depth reporting this week in the Casa Grande Dispatch, Maricopa Monitor and sister publications focuses on some deep disputes about how much law enforcement is costing — and whether it is too much. The fact that the county has grown so much in the 21st century, and that much of that growth has been outside city limits, certainly has put a strain on budgets. But the question is how much is too much?

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