The Demopolis City Council decided Thursday to put off voting on the city’s budget until Oct. 1, the day the fiscal year begins. This would not be such a big deal, if not for the council’s apparent sluggishness in getting the budget passed.

Council members had some disagreement over the budget at its Sept. 3 meeting, couldn’t find a date to meet before the Sept. 17 meeting, and ran through the same problems on Thursday.

At that Sept. 3 meeting, the council decided to discuss the budget at the Sept. 17 meeting and recess that meeting to a later date to approve the budget. That didn’t happen.

Waiting until the start of the fiscal year to approve a budget is cutting it pretty close.

With discussions limiting progress on the past two meetings, city leaders cannot afford to stall out again. Please understand that council members have businesses to run or jobs to maintain. After all, being elected to the council is a part-time position.

However, it’s a part-time position with full-time responsibility.

We hope the council will exercise its authority to hold at least one special called meeting before the end of this fiscal year and hammer out the city budget before it needs to be enacted.