Maybe it’s because we’re in the midst of budget season; maybe we’re just impatient. But there’s merit in Butler County Controller Ben Holland’s contention that a county staff-cutting plan to adjust for the sale of the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center should be comprehensive.

As controller, Holland holds the fourth vote on the salary board, which decides staffing issues. County commissioners Bill McCarrier, Dale Pinkerton and Jim Eckstein control the other three votes.

On Wednesday, Holland sent his deputy to block a vote to cut staffing in the human resources department. His stance precludes any change being made because there must be at least three board members approving a motion or it doesn’t pass, and Eckstein also opposed saying he has a staff-reduction plan of his own.

“I want the cuts, but I want them done in a comprehensive manner,” Holland said earlier this week. He said one department shouldn’t be singled out when employees from several departments spent time dealing with Sunnyview matters.

McCarrier criticized Holland’s intention to vote no, calling it “an unprofessional thing to do” when Holland has been pushing all along for staff cuts.

McCarrier says human resources is just a starting point, adding, “You’ve got to start somewhere,” implying more cuts are in the works.

All four salary board members agree on the need for reductions in staff and salary as a result of the Sunnyview privatization. It was a selling point raised frequently when McCarrier and Pinkerton were pushing for the sale. They stressed that part of Sunnyview’s annual deficit was the indirect costs the county assessed to the nursing home, including hours spent by government center employees on Sunnyview issues, amounting to $295,609 in 2013.

About half of that figure — $152,709 — is attributable to Human Resources, according to data from Maximus Inc., a government consulting firm. It makes sense that human resources would have less to do, since 200 county employees at Sunnyview became private-sector workers with the privatization.

The reality of the situation should dictate that about half of the cuts should fall on Human Resources; the rest should be appropriated to the other departments whose employees had a hand in Sunnyview operations.

Holland’s call for a comprehensive plan makes sense in one respect: by going piecemeal, the salary board has met twice, debated several hours and accomplished nothing — and the county’s timetable for a 2015 budget is running.

It’s admirable that the salary board members put much time and consideration into the careers and compensation of its employees, but the taxpayers deserve a little consideration, too — particularly when staffing reductions were part of the marketing package for the Sunnyview privatization. All of the staff cuts should be finalized in time so that they are reflected in the 2015 budget.

Holland’s request for a draft proposal of staff cuts is not unreasonable. What’s the harm in putting a comprehensive plan out in the open for everyone to study and debate?