Direction, please: Someone needs to do something -- and soon -- to figure out next step

Call it limbo.

While there is no question that North Carolina's leadership has performed at a level that could be considered non-existent, there is one really big reason why policies seem distorted and local governments have no idea whether they are coming or going.

Nobody really knows which shoe is going to drop next at the federal level. That doubt causes uncertainty in Raleigh, which, in turn, makes it nearly impossible for anyone to know just how much money this county is going to need to sustain itself.

And that is why someone, somewhere had better come up with some concrete plan -- and some guidelines for available federal funds to let the states know what to expect in the coming months.

While there have been some questionable calls locally when it comes to deciding where to spend the taxpayers' money, the truth is that there is a certain amount of caution required. Local leaders could legitimately say they do not know how to plan for the next few months, let alone the coming fiscal year.

Put simply, no one knows what rules, regulations, costs or other concerns will be passed on to local governments -- and that makes it hard to know how much to keep in the coffers just in case.

The see-sawing and hem-hawing is getting tiresome. And so are the lame ideas cloaked in campaign clothing.

Real answers are what we need, and soon.

Published in Editorials on October 14, 2011 11:20 AM