If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.&uot; The Mississippi Legislature would do well to follow that bit of common-sense logic these days. Representatives — including our own Phillip West, D-Natchez, and David Green, D-Gloster — tried to push through a measure that would revive the old county beat system of government.

The bill, thankfully, failed.

But the fact that Reps. West and Green, along with more than 50 others who voted for it, actually think revisiting the structure of county government is a good use of our state’s time, energies … and money … is disturbing.

The supporters wanted to give people in counties that went under the unit system in 1988 a chance to switch back to the beat system — with a public vote.

In Adams County, we can’t think of a bigger mistake than to revisit and reinstitute the beat system of government.

The unit system is designed to streamline government and eliminate both overlapping of services and funding, and, more to the point, the opportunity to pad government budgets and payrolls.

Under the beat system, for instance, each district had its own road manager and work crews; under the unit system, one road manager oversees a county-wide crew, and favoritism&160;- if it plays a role – is much more difficult to exercise.

It just makes sense … good, common sense to the good people of the state who expect efficient, cost-effective government.

And reviving the beat system, which proved too tempting for dozens of supervisors and county officials — just doesn’t seem to make sense at all.