County leaders made the right move because the proposal was the wrong solution at an even worse time.

The Lawrence County Commission made the correct decision Thursday when it opted to table the plan to place a 2.5-mil ambulance levy on the May primary ballot.

Essentially, the commissioners listened to the majority in the community who have said they don’t want to pay more taxes during already difficult economic times.

Plus, the group acknowledged some of the flaws with the proposal that was complicated and was really more of a roundabout approach to addressing massive budgetary problems in the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office.

But don’t for a second think that the county’s problems have passed.

That isn’t even close to reality.

Something will have to give — and will likely have to give soon.

Citizens are going to have to decide what they want: To pay more money or start drastically cutting services.

That is the two scenarios in a nutshell.

Forget about some miracle job growth overnight or stimulus money being the savior or grant money solving all our problems.

That isn’t going to happen.

The county has made significant cuts in recent years — and some more changes are needed — but that still won’t fully pay for the high cost of curbing crime.

Drastic cuts will have to be made. Do citizens want a strong law enforcement agency? Do they want ambulance service? Do they want to have strong infrastructure or are they satisfied with the status quo?

This levy wasn’t the right solution but citizens are going to have to provide their leaders with some answers so one can be found.