Where are taxpayers at budget time?

We can count on the fingers of one hand the number of civilians who attended Douglas County's budget hearings.

There were lots of county employees and officials, but only three taxpayers who don't collect a check from the county attended.

The budget hearings are a snapshot of what's happened in the county over the past year, and what's likely to happen.

It's a place where interesting facts like the general fund only accounts for about a third of the county's total budget or that the average sale price for a home at Lake Tahoe was $1.033 million during 2008, but was only $838,105 in 2009.

One of the things that has affected budgets all over the county has been the reduction in building activity. Only 43 single family dwelling building permits were issued during 2009, down from 48 in 2008. The county's building industry hit its peak in 2005, when 537 permits were issued.

Besides the obvious decline in sales tax and fees that came with the decline in building permits, it was also bad news for utilities depending on connection fees to make needed improvements. Total connection fees in the county went from $2.5 million in 2004 to $25,000 last year. Meanwhile the debt of those utilities climbed to $1.9 million a year.

There's hundreds of these facts available online at the county's Web site. Douglas County commissioners will continue to work on the budget through the beginning of May. Anyone who has an interest and the time should go through the presentations. It's our money and our services at stake.