When it comes to budget fiascoes, Miami-Dade County is hardly alone. All around the country, cities and counties are grappling with the dilemma of too much expense and too little revenue, though few rival the size of Miami-Dade's looming $427 million deficit.

No matter the amount of their fiscal shortcomings, many communities increasingly are turning to their residents for solutions by forming citizen budget-review panels.

Diverse communities ranging from New Haven, Conn., to Morrisville, N.C., have either considered or created citizen committees to guide elected officials as they decide how and where to shrink funding. It's a decidedly different approach to how we're dealing with the issue here, where angry residents voice -- or shout -- their opinions to elected officials in hope that their sentiments will sway them.

Too often, officials only hear one side of the argument coming from a crowd stacked with a homogenous view. For example, when County Commissioner Barbara Jordan recently met with constituents to discuss the budget, she asked the crowd if they were willing to pay higher property taxes to keep many of the services discussed. ``The crowd,'' according to a press release issued by Jordan's office, ``responded in unison with a resounding `yes.' ''

HARDLY REFLECTIVE

Such harmony is heartening, but it's hardly reflective of Miami-Dade County overall.

The process has been somewhat more methodical in Jefferson County, Colo., where two years ago, seeing the problems that lay ahead, the county commission created a panel of citizens to study the budget and recommend solutions.

Granted, their shortfall was a paltry $12 million, but emotions were riding high on what changes should be made, says Michael Feeley, a former Colorado state senator who served on the panel. Members were appointed by the commissioners and given the county's full cooperation in researching and accessing financial data.

If nothing else, says Feeley, having citizens make recommendations ``gives decision-makers some cover.''

The process worked well, he says. The commission adopted about 80 percent of the panel's recommendations. Key to the success of such an approach, he says, is having complete transparency with regard to the finances: ``Otherwise, you're just going to antagonize people.''

In addition, he says, the commissioners should not be part of the process aside from appointing members to the panel: ``If they really want to get new ideas in an unbiased process, they need to stay away.''

ALREADY IN GEAR

Of course, some local citizens aren't waiting for such formalities. Local members of LowerTaxesNow.org already have begun forming unofficial citizen committees to study the county and school board budgets.

The creation of an official citizens' budget review panel would be a better option. Granted, creating it now would come too late to help with the problems the county faces this year.

In Jefferson County, for example, the panel met regularly for months to study the budget and develop recommendations.

That time frame would be even longer here, considering the complexities and sizes of our local city and county budgets. Still, given the lingering economic downturn, our budget dilemmas aren't likely to go away any time soon and may even grow worse.

As the folks in Jefferson County have demonstrated, it's never too late to start early.

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