When newspapering becomes news, everything takes on a little edge.

The newsroom gets edgy. The reporters are edgy. The sources are definitely edgy, and even some of the readers start showing signs of edginess.

This past week, the cycle was completed as “the newspaper” found itself thrust into the debate over county finances. The Journal became either a reason to take action, or the villainous instigator of a non-issue and propagator of half-truths, depending on which side you were on.

It’s interesting how this happens.

A government-related issue develops outside the newsroom and we report it. It either has legs or gets legs with the public, and the paper continues to report it. In the process, the paper develops a position, which it expresses on its editorial page. Depending on how strongly the paper senses the public interest is at stake, the vigor and redundancy of that editorial expression ebbs and flows.

We believe that taxes in Oconee County have gone up disproportionately to spending in recent years, that the county’s finances need to be scrutinized by independent sources and that an accounting — possibly including a refund (credit) — should be made to the public. We believe that some of the people who campaigned for office did so on a platform that they would see to these matters, and we believe that after 10 months in office, they have not.

We’ve written countless factual stories about county finances.

We have made our position known in editorials and, failing to get straightforward responses, we began a series of full-page opinion statements (call them “ads” if you like … it really doesn’t matter, they’re our opinion), asking the public to join us in a call for financial transparency and campaign compliance.

Most councilmen — perhaps all — don’t appreciate what we are doing. Some readers do; some of them don’t. We’ve heard from both.

It’s OK that elected officials don’t like what we’re doing. That’s the nature of our respective jobs sometimes … to get in each other’s faces, to growl and hiss. If we’re true professionals we will respect those differing roles and treat each other accordingly.

None of this is personal. It’s about the public’s business.

So, the council has said it won’t do an audit and it won’t refund any money. Fine.

Theoretically, they have made these decisions based on either information to which only they are privy, or a lack of information from which to make any other decision.

That’s fine, too. The problem is, I’m a word guy, not a numbers guy, yet in four hours of poring over just one public document I was able to get a basic understanding of how the county managed to NOT spend $6.2 million it collected in taxes two years ago. I reported what I learned.

Some councilmen suggest we haven’t reported the whole story, or their side of the story, or something. I would argue that this perception rests in the fact that they haven’t accounted for the money, which is precisely what we would like them to do.

You don’t have to be a CPA or a banker to answer some basic questions. It shouldn’t take a year.

For instance:

According to the auditor, the county underspent its 2007-08 budget by $6.2 million after underspending its 2006-07 budget by $9 million. Where did that $15.2 million go? Surely, it doesn’t take 10 months to answer that question.

According to the 2008-09 budget, the general fund “carryover” from the previous year was $1.4 million. That leaves $4.8 of the $6.2 million unaccounted for dollars unaccounted for again. Where are they?

Every year we plow roughly $500,000 into economic development, but we don’t spend it. Why?

Since the County Council has essentially gutted the emergency service department and ripped up the plan upon which a 2.9 mill ($1.5 million) special tax was based, why is this tax still being collected?

Why are taxes in Oconee County three and four times greater than per capita taxes in comparable counties?

These are the questions laymen are asking.

Taxes and government spending are the biggest issues facing this country today.

Unlike Washington, where creating debt has become a science, Oconee isn’t running up debt. On the contrary, Oconee County Council has made a science of running up reserves built on the dwindling ability of their constituents to pay.