Editor:

In my letter to the editor ("Hey Big Spender," Sept. 18) I mistakenly gave figures from the county assessor's department saying they were Auditor/Controller's office. My bad.

For clarity, a further change would be the word "budget" and substitute the word "revenues." In other words, the assessor department was proposing spending $1,780,425 over its revenues and will use the general fund to cover the difference; the board of supervisors was proposing spending $1,124,072 over its revenues and will use the general fund to cover their expenditures. DHHS was proposing spending $4,268,672 more than they brought in with again the general fund making up the difference.

In my family the budget is our revenue. That was the mistake I made. For instance, I make $1,000 and that is my budget and my revenues. I cannot spend over this amount but not so in government.

I apologize for this mistake in verbiage to the NCJ, and to Mr. Mellett but stand by the numbers. These numbers are what our county departments spent (expenditures) over the amount they bring in (revenues) in the years mentioned. The numbers are straight from www.humboldtgov.org/247/Budget. Look it up.

Oh by the way, the auditor/controller was proposing spending $1,004,931 more than they brought in. This will also came from the general fund.

Rick Brennan, Eureka