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The town of Rocky Mount is getting pinched like many other Virginia localities these days. In the fiscal year that begins July 1, the town anticipates an 11 percent drop in revenue.

Because of that, the Rocky Mount Town Council recently passed a $7.5 million budget that freezes town employees' pay, provides for no capital spending and reduces expenditures in supplies and materials across the board, Finance Director Linda Woody said.

It's what they didn't cut that has former three-term council member Arnold Dillon steaming mad.

Brace yourselves, readers: We're talking much more Mayberry than Manhattan here.

The Rocky Mount businessman, who left the council in 2000 and is no relation to Councilman Posey Dillon, is about as folksy as the sugar and corn-mash potion Franklin County is famous for.

You should know that Arnold Dillon and some other town council members were criticized for mismanagement in an unusual series of five editorials this newspaper published in 1997. Those blasted off with one titled "Something's Rotten in Rocky Mount."

Get him on the subject of town spending these days, though, and Dillon takes a deep breath and launches into a list of taxpayer-financed perks he says a recession-pinched government in a town of 4,500 should do without.

Read the rest of the column here.

Do you think spending in Rocky Mount is out of line, or right on the money? Post your comments below.