Ever thought about opening up the accounting books of your business, office or company for the public to critique?

How about letting the world comment on your personal spending patterns?

Neither is something many of us have to think about, unless, of course you work for the government. Then, rightly so, an annual public hearing rolls around and you open the doors to the missiles.

The Natchez-Adams schools aren&8217;t raising taxes this year. Last week&8217;s public hearing should have been a relatively mild one, compared to years past when property taxes did go up. But mild and tax hearing don&8217;t belong in the same sentence together.

The crowd was small &8212; as usual &8212; but the comments were, at times, volatile.

Because the schools weren&8217;t raising taxes, the five-person crowd wanted school officials to lower them. They found line item after line item they&8217;d choose to veto. Graduation rates are too low, but the district is spending too much per child. Test scores need to go up, but the district shouldn&8217;t pay someone whose job description includes overseeing test performance.

The questions, comments and eventually snide remarks came for over an hour.

Most comments were deflected with short, to-the-point answers; others rattled a few doors and windows. Some just incited anger on both sides.

Ultimately the group found common ground and all fingers pointed in one direction &8212; the state.

Though district officials would love to lower the local tax rate (after all, they pay them too), they aren&8217;t receiving enough money from the state Legislature to do the job the federal (and state) government is asking them to do.

Expenses are up; state money is down. Educational standards are high.

The solution, lobby the state.

But wait, point the fingers in a different direction.

How is Natchez-Adams County going to drum up enough phone calls, letters and visits to local Legislators to change anything when only five people (three adults, one child and one elected official) attend a public hearing on something as important as how taxpayer dollars are being spent?

Apathy wins again.

An hour&8217;s discussion led to an unreachable solution in the minds of the small crowd.

But the dialogue was good. And the public &8212; small as it was &8212; was heard.

It&8217;s a good system, our government. We the people are the ultimate checks and balances. They give us our time to speak, and if we choose to do so, we might change the things that need to be changed.

Evidently, property taxes are not too high in Adams County. If they were the school board room would have been jam packed Thursday with residents demanding taxes be lowered.

And, I think, if the people demanded it, it might happen.

Thursday&8217;s group left on speaking terms. They were even quite friendly once they agreed to blame the state. And all involved learned a little something about the other.

Running a school system isn&8217;t easy, but neither is being a taxpayer.

Just remember, your financial statements are private.

Julie Finley

is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or

julie.finley@natchezdemocrat.com