At state and local levels, budget committees are purging costs at a near record pace. Left and right, they rip through expenditures like Edward Scissorhands pruning a shrub. It’s impressive how the State of Georgia was able to purge somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 billion dollars. Many communities are claiming that they cut millions with no drop in services. In his post on Karen Handel, Jeff brings up a good point. If they can provide services without the money being spent, then why was it being spent in the first place?
Jeff is right. Money is being spent by communities seemingly because they can. Now, this certainly isn’t true of every community, but it’s certainly a perception of many of these governments. However, as soon as the economy perks up, then the spending will increase as well.
In many cases, this spending increase will be to relieve the workload on those who were still working and were overwhelmed with what they were currently dealing with. Now, that’s hardly waste, so it’s not going to be discussed as there’s little to actually discuss within this topic (those services may not be required in my opinion, but we’ll have to talk about those individually).
In many communities, however, when tax revenues increase, then spending will probably increase. Why? Well, probably only because they can. So I’m asking that the City of Albany, and all the surrounding governments as well, to lead the state in a new initiative. It’s the “Don’t Spend it Just Because You’ve Got It” Initiative (yeah…it’s a mouthful). Here’s what I mean.
The City of Albany was tasked with cutting 10% from each department. When we get out of this economic climate, this initiative calls for the city to not add back all that expense. Now, with crime what it is, there’s no issue with say the Albany Police Department hiring more officers. That’s a genuine need that needs to be met. But upgrading the Department’s vehicles simply because they can is, I think, silly.
The problem here is the balanced budget law. What we need is a surplus budget law, one that requires governments to bring in more than they spend, just like you and I tend to need to do. This would help communities weather poor economic climates without having to scramble trying to find cuts. After all, if you’re already bare bones, there’s nowhere to cut.
Governments need to remember to do this by cutting expenditures though and not by raising taxes. Running all your businesses and citizens to nearby counties is…well…let’s just call it “counter productive”
