Money managers for local public treasuries are doing a much better job than their counterparts at the state and federal levels.

In Washington, Congress, which doubled the national debt to $8 trillion during the eight years of the George Bush presidency, has, in one year, added another $4 trillion — putting the debt per taxpayer at $116,000. Further, the Congressional Budget Office says existing plans of the Barack Obama administration will increase the debt by another $10 trillion in the next 10 years.

In Jackson, lawmakers — who have the authority to issue bonds for capital expenses, but are constitutionally required to balance Mississippi’s budget otherwise — continue to quibble over this year’s allocations, even though the fiscal year ends June 30. Undecided is when, exactly, they’ll get around to deciding allocations for the new budget year, which starts July 1.

Locally, good fiscal management has kept the Vicksburg Warren School District from running out of money, even though state payments have been below promised amounts. No teacher layoffs, although some staff vacancies have not been filled.

Warren County supervisors, boosted by property tax appraisals that showed higher values countywide this tax year, are nonetheless dealing with shortfalls, including reimbursements from the state treasury for homestead exemption claims. Board members have mentioned the possibility of furloughs, but so far plan to conserve and keep overtime in check.

From City Hall, word is that overall revenue is down about 4 percent, but again Mayor Paul Winfield and the aldermen expected less revenue and adopted a budget that called for less spending overall, mainly through reduction in capital projects. City Hall will zap people with higher water and sewer rates, making money that had been used to subsidize the utilities available for other purposes — but don’t count on one of them being a tax cut.

The national economic implosion occurred in October 2008. This is March 2010, so 17 months have elapsed. While there are new signs of life in the marketplace, at least on Wall Street, it may be another 17 months or more before revenue stabilizes for local government.

The schools, city and county have benefited from a realistic approach to their financial situations. The challenge before them is to keep their expectations in check and, more importantly, use the local stability to better position themselves.

Winfield is correct when he says, as he has many times, that this community is better off financially than many. Local leaders should use that to the citizens’ advantage.