Fiscal foolishness is never good, but it is particularly nasty during times of economic uncertainty.

But Ferriday town leaders appear to be on the brink of testing the theory of two wrongs making a right.

Last week, Ferriday Mayor Gene Allen announced plans to spend millions of dollars on a municipal complex and new public swimming pool.

He estimated spending $7 to $8 million on the new municipal complex to replace the town hall, fire station and police station.

The existing buildings are aging and may very well need to be replaced, but Allen’s plan seems to ignore a very real fact — the town’s finances are not in good shape.

The town’s 2014 audit was recently released showing just how ugly the situation is.

The audit suggested the town spent more than $500,000 more than was budgeted out of its general fund. That’s a budget versus actual spending error of more than 25 percent.

In addition, the audit was given with a big warning label on it — it was noted that the auditor suggested the audit had what accountants refer to as a “qualified opinion.”

While that sounds good, it isn’t. That means the auditor suggested the data provided was incomplete or that the town didn’t follow traditional accounting rules, thus the results could not be verified as being fully accurate.

As has been the case for years, among Ferriday’s biggest problems is its decrepit water system. At the time of the audit, four out of 10 water meters were broken. Allen says new meters have been installed, which is good. But prudence suggests the town should wait a year and get a good audit under its belt before committing additional town resources to big projects that are not critical.