The Baxter County Coroner’s Office asked the county’s Quorum Court this month to buy a handheld device that helps locate bodies underwater. Within hours of the Observer’s story, readers had a suggestion. Sell the license plate cameras in Mountain Home and use the money.
It is a reasonable-sounding idea that cannot happen. The cameras belong to the City of Mountain Home. The Coroner’s Office belongs to Baxter County.
Those are two different governments with two different budgets, two different sets of elected officials and two different sources of money. Neither one can spend the other’s dollars. Selling city property puts money in the city’s account, and the county has no claim on it…