Yesterday Governor Tim Kaine and his financial advisors discussed a nearly $2.8 Billion dollar deficit for the state. He will present his budget revisions to the General Assembly December 17. The news is going to be grim. Yesterday Gov. Kaine met with Barack Obama in to discuss the economy. The FY 2010 budget begins July 1.
The pain, however, is not being evenly felt. Arlington has a huge commercial tax base which will help keep it from total hard times. The huge decrease in home values in Prince William County has eviscerated county finances. PWC lacks the extensive commercial tax base that Arlington enjoys.
Less money will go to Richmond and in turn, that means less money for localities. Arlington County officials are considering an increase in 1.7 cents for next year, although that wouldn’t totally fix their budget deficit.
The PW BOCS is still playing around with the tax rate. At last glance it appears that $1.13.[correction from $1.16 to $1.13] was being considered. Currently the tax rate is at $.97. Even with the increase in rate, most residents will find their tax bill less because of the substantial drop in property value. The average home value in PWC has dropped about 30%. PWC has the most foreclosures in the state of Virginia.
The PWC BOCS is looking at a variety of ways to help keep the wolf away from the door, including enacting cigarette, admissions and meals taxes. Chairman Corey Stewart was quoted as saying “We ought to focus our guns on core issues and not get sidetracked by other things.”
According to an article in the Washington Post:
Prince William, which has the highest number of foreclosures in the state, wants additional authority to place liens on vacant property to help recover the cost of cleaning graffiti. It also wants to extend liability protection to neighboring property owners who mow grass or remove trash and debris from vacant properties.
What else does Stewart have in mind? Obviously his Immigration Resolution didn’t bring in the savings we were promised. Of course, no one believed that one. That was just a way to fool people and even at that, only a few bought in to that blarny.
The school system will be slammed by these cuts. Already there is talk of no cost of living increase for employees and larger sized classes. There is also talk of delaying capital improvements which would include delaying the building of a new, much needed high school.
Are there solutions to lessen the problems facing PWC? Would people be content having the 2010 tax rate even higher to maintain services? Would a higher tax rate drive out businesses?
Having the most foreclosures in the state of Virginia is sure a distinction I could do without.
Thanks M-H. There was another article in the Washington Post today entitled – Dark Fiscal Future for Schools
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/01/AR2008120102748.html
Also, Grant Lattin wrote this letter to the editor –
http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/article/supervisors_face_tough_challenge/25623/
Supervisor May sent this letter to the editor regarding the budget in just before Thanksgiving.
http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/opinion/columns/article/budget_challenges_for_the_bocs/25178/
I just read in Insidenova.com that people had to be members here. How do I sign up?
I see Supervisor May’s name. Is he a good guy or a bad guy?
All these developments are useful to illuminate the cost of going to war with your neighbor instead of the more of difficult road of compromise and tolerance. We didn’t mediate the dispute. Now we have to learn the hard way.
Mackie, there is some truth to that statement both locally and globally.
Simon, I think Mr. May is a good guy for the most part. He is thoughtful of others for starters.
Simon, sorry. I forgot to say welcome. You are joined up. All you have to do now is jump into the fray.
Bottom line, PWC is worse off than any of its neighbors when it comes to plummeting property values and budget shortfalls, by a long shot. Try as you might, we cannot blame this on the Bush administration because our neighboring counties also suffered under the same mismanagement.
It is hard to blame people like Supervisor May, however, because he and at least four of the other Supervisors were trapped in a wave of anti-immigrant hysteria created by Stewart and Stirrup with the help of outside lobbying organizations and local lobbyists.
Supervisor May is a good guy in the story of Prince William County’s economic misfortune. I know that he felt really bad about what happened here last year. And, I would venture that if the economic situation was considered rather than counting the number of voters angry about immigration, we probably wouldn’t be facing this kind of a budget shortfall.
It is the responsibility of the in-it-for-the-long-haul Supervisors like May, Jenkins, Nohe, Caddigan, and Principi to protect the county’s long term interests against the short-sighted and divisive politics that can infect a government when outsiders move here to use our Board of Supervisors as a platform to higher office. Stewart and Stirrup are the outsiders who destroyed this county for what they thought would be their own political gain.
In the middle is Covington, who gets the benefit of the doubt for being silent.
It’s a math problem. We can’t spend what we can’t raise (unless we want a County defecit). Big County Government with too much power over our lives contributed to the “Immigration resolution”. That’s the risk of letting Government get out of hand.
I would suggest this is an excellent opportunity to downsize County Government to its core mission: Public Safety. It performs a lot of services that make several small constituancies happy; however, many of these services have nothing to do with the business of Government (who decided they should measure the height of our grass, again?)
I would suggest this is a good time to “pull a few teeth” from the Monstor that we created and get back to a smaller, less intrusive Government that worries about preventing crime, putting out fires, getting people to the hospital, perhaps ensureing all of our citizens have access to health care and mental health services, and planning for Natural Disasters and emergencies. I concede that we need land management, zoning, title and tax administration and a few other infrastructure things; however, the rest can go.
I don’t need a “Government nannie” for other areas of my life.
The downsizing is a must in any case. Supervisor May explained it well enough for me. Raising taxes is not an option because it would be unfair to people who don’t live in areas devastated by the Immigration Resolution exodus. And, it would also be unfair to businesses, whose property values have not plummeted either.
I agree that our current economy is bad..and we’ve been thru bad times in the past (late 80’s and early 90’s). The thing M-H that we must remember is that schools/systems are not profit gaining institutions. Schools are wholly dependent on the tax base combined with federal funds for certain programs. When the economy is hit hard, I know that you know that schools and other tax-dependent institutions are hit pretty hard. For years in the late 80’s there was a freeze on raises for teachers. In today’s metro section there was an article about how the teachers and administrative staff in Montgomery Co. decided to forgo their raises for next year in an effort to balance the budget. It’s unfortunate, but it is also a reality. Already MCPS has frozen it’s technology budget (which unfortunately covers replacement ink cartridges for printers), and as of weeks ago no longer matches contributions to it’s 403b annuity program. It has also frozen the hiring of new staff, even if teachers resign mid-year, and as of January, there will no longer be a permanent sub position for any school. And before anyone decries the ESOL program…that is federally funded thru Title III, and all reading remediation programs (such as Reading Recovery) are funded thru the Title I grant. They cost the school system little. Maybe we should go back to the old ways:)…does anyone remember paying “book rental” fees each year? And I’m still all about having a state-wide yard sale of surplus curricular items.
If you didn’t read May’s article, what he’s saying is that property values have dropped so much that even with the hike in the property tax RATE, the actual tax bills will not go up this year. And, if we did raise the tax rate any further than we are, then it would be unfair to home owners and business people who have not seen the drastic drop off.
Herndon starts I-9 campaign for day laborers
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/news/2008/dec/03/herndon-starts-i-9-campaign-day-laborers/
info,
Haha, the whole economy is unraveling and Herndon continues attacking one of the most productive segments of it’s community. They’re actually trying to prevent their own community members from working?!? Will these idiots never learn?
Sometimes life isn’t fair. We need to set the tax rate high enough that the county can operate. I am not sure that has happened. Some people might have a higher tax bill. They should consider themselves fortunate that their home hasn’t lost so much value that their tax bill is lower.
Opinion, it sounds like perhaps you need to live in one of those counties where density is less. We need those grass measurers to help maintain the quality of life in a busy, crowded county. There are plenty out there and they also scab off of our tax money.
M-H,
I hear you. I think Supervisor May is a reasonable person, though, so I read his piece assuming that he was in favor of raising the tax rate enough to keep the county functioning at at least a basic level. Does this mean that you have a different definition of a basically operable level that he does?
I haven’t looked at the cuts they are proposing, so I’m not able to take a position really. Like most people, I don’t use any public services, I don’t have any family members who use services, so I’m just hoping they can keep public safety and schools functioning at a basic level.
What’s the argument for someone who doesn’t use the services that are being cut? I’m not being cold hearted, just playing devil’s advocate.
NGL, I think we all use services we aren’t aware of. Do you have garbage? Ever go to the library? Do you buy dog tags? Runaway dogs in the neighborhood? Loud neighbors who thump until 2 am every weekend? Speeders on your street?
Ever been broken into? No, well, maybe the cops kept that from happening. Ever needed to make alternations to your home? Like to watch the bocs meetings? Have kids or family members in school?
We live in a metropolitan area. If you like small government with few services, go to some outpost county, not a major metropolitan area. Over the past year or so, I have heard all sorts of references being made about third world countries. A large suburban county with very few services could easily resemble a third world country given the right circumstances. Let’s not allow that to happen.
All sorts of people wrote that they would gladly have their taxes raised if only the county would get rid of the ‘illegals.’ I don’t see them stepping up to the plate now. They are probably still the cheap bastards who want something for nothing and 45 kids in each class, except their kids’ of course.
It’s a shame that we count on “big brother” to replace personal responsibility. NotGregLetiecq’s comment made me think… I really don’t use many services either. That doesn’t mean they should go away, it does mean that we ought to look at volume, traffic density, and county demographics as they relate to services in making budget decisions. What ever happened to community responsibility, Churches, Synagogue, and Mosques delivering social services and taking care of their people, and volunteer agencies rising to the occasion of helping those in need within our community. This puts the resources to solve a problem within the community where the problem exists and adds a “personal touch” to compassion that is missing in Government solutions. Government isn’t the answer. It’s the problem.
I believe that many of our County services were created to satisfy some narrow constituency. These services come with “advocates” who keep them alive. Supervisors tend to listen to these “advocates” because they have narrow, vocal constituencies who vote (the Immigration Resolution is one example of “advocates” with narrow constituencies driving to a solution that made them happy.
Ironically, once such a County service is created, it becomes self-sustaining driving its own growth to add staff and survive. They are easier to start than they are to terminate.
So, my suggestion:
1. Create a County “Sunset rule” that no new County organization may last longer than five years. This would force a review of all new County operations over time.
2. Review current County organizations that fall outside of Mandated requirements. Supervisor Stewart and the BOCS have already (I Believe) directed staff to focus on Mandated services first.
a. Why were they formed?
b. Who do they serve?
c. Do these services actually discriminate against the majority of PWC residents by focusing on a narrow geographic area, demographic, or constituency?
d. Why can’t (important question be asked in this construct) these services be performed by a private organization?
e. What is the County’s legal mandate to perform these services?
3. Cut entire organizations instead of staff across the board. This is a more robust solution. I focus on organizations because cutting staff incrementally across Government instead of eliminating whole organizations does nothing to make Government more efficient (and often hides costs by moving people around… they return quickly).
People would like things to remain the same. That’s not good Government. It is easy to spend OPM (other peoples money); however, that’s more difficult to do in today’s economic environment. It’s important to note that we may be experiencing a permanent shift in our economy. Lower real estate values, lower wages, higher unemployment, etc. I would prefer that our BOCS tighten up the “block and tackle” on the ship of Prince William County to weather this storm instead of just rearranging the deck chairs.
A couple of folks suggested that I might want to live some place else. That’s ironic considering the heritage of this blog. I don’t plan to leave Prince William County, I plan to stick around and make it a better place to live
This is a GREAT blog, by the way. My complaments to the blog managers and the many controbutors. I still go to the “dark side” occasionally for amusement; however, it just can’t compete for quality content.
A question (to which I don’t know the answer). Why do we feel the mandate for PWC to “grow”? We encourage the developers who we malign to clear cut our open space, cut down our trees, add to our tax burden by requiring roads, schools, fire, police, hospitals, and other services. Perhaps we should value the rural character that we appear so eager to abandon instead of attempting to look like Fairfax County. I believe that perhaps our BOCS (not necessarily the majority of our citizens) may suffer from “County Envy” (and we pay the price of “catching up”)
Look where unrestrained growth has taken us? Personally, I’ll miss the occasional country store that currently dots our rural landscape.
NGL,
It’s important to understand the source of the problem.
The source is not the SS (Stirrup and Stewart). They only focused what was already there.
The source is the sense of entitlement that white people continue to harbor in this country.
For example, they actually think they can use the government to force other people to speak english! This is a complete absurdity. It’s a crazy idea. A nakedly arrogant notion that we all must live our lives according to whatever way makes white people feel comfortable. Just the fact that the debate over english is actually on the table as opposed to being rejected outright, illuminates how deeply entrenched white privilege and white entitlement is in the minds of white people.
Saying we must all learn to speak english is akin to saying we must all practice the protestant faith. Would anyone even begin to take something like that seriously?
Mackie,
I don’t believe taxpayers are under any obligation to pay for translating documents. But in times past the immigrants would find a relative or neighbor to help them until they were fluent in the language. What’s wrong with that? Of course, people can speak whatever they wish on their own dime and mandating otherwise is ludicrous. But do you think we(taxpayers) should be paying for translation of these documents into other languages?
Opinion, I was the evil one who suggested living else where. That wasn’t an ‘if you don’t like it get out’ remark. It was a ‘smaller rural setting might suit better’ remark.
I actually don’t think we are miles apart but I do want to clarify. I want a superior police department, school system, animal control, more than adequate fire and rescue. When these sorts of services get cut I believe we turn into a second class community.
I like watching the bocs meetings on tv. I like having parks and recreation. I was angry that the senior citizen day care facility got closed down on this side of town. I like having a mini land fill off of Balls Ford Road and I like the recycle igloos. These are things I don’t think private individuals can provide.
Now having said that, there are probably layers of government I don’t even know about. I tried looking some of them up last night before answering NGL. Darn if I couldn’t not find the county website. It was down. I am willing to say I don’t know enough about local government to suggest cuts. What might seem superfluous
to me might be critical and essential to others.
I think it is essential that we not mistreat our county employees during this economic downturn. I would be the one to suggest rearranging the deck chairs when discussing productive personnel.
We are glad you are here and sorry you thought I was saying get out. I will watch my ‘tone’ in the future. 😉
M-H
Countries that don’t have a national language, either formally or informally, are destined for problems. People other than white people speak English. Those kinds of comments are making it difficult for me to stick to my rules about mentioning racism.
Alanna,
I don’t have any problem with tax dollars being spent to translate government services into the language of their constituents. If someone is a member of the community, they are paying taxes, so the expense becomes justified in my view. It’s one of the few things that government can do that would actually be worthwhile.
M-H,
Denial only makes the problem worse.
Moon-Howler, I appreciate your feedback. I agree that we should not mistreet our County employees (or any employee anywhere for that matter). That being said, I also believe Government should be managed like any other business. We, hopefully, can manage the impact of downsizing through normal attrition and retirements (not hiring, moving folks within the system to fill vacancies, etc.) and perhaps severance packages (although these are going out of style in the private sector).
That being said, when business is bad you usually end up letting people go (“last in/first out”). Government employees (IMHO) are not exhempt from this simple reality. Just ask anyone who has been recently let go at Goldman Sachs, GM, Ford, K-Mart, Sears, or any other business if they think Government folks deserve to be treated differently. I think not.
I wish we could bring in a Warren Buffet or a Jack Welsh to sort things out through these troubled times. I belive I know what they would do.
M-H, thanks for the illuminating opinions. Opinion, thanks for the illuminating howls.
It’s interesting. Being involved in your government is easier when the choices are stark and simple. For me, it was clear that a new direction and a new President was necessary in the 2008 election, and it was clear that the Immigration Resolution would be costly, counterproductive, and damaging to the local economy in 2007. But now that the damage is already done, we have these tough choices to make.
It’s a lot like the federal government dealing with the aftermath of Bush economic policy and the decision to spend billions and billions of dollars on an unnecessary war that they had to lie to justify. Many Americans new these were bad policies even as they were being enacted. If that money had been spent here at home, we would be forced to do this bailout revolving door thing to save the country. But, we DID invade Iraq, we ARE still occupying Iraq, and the deregulation that led to Enron, the Wall Street collapse, and now the auto industry collapse all DID happen.
It seems easy in hindsight to say deregulation, invading Iraq, and the Immigration Resolution were bad policies. Hysteria led to two of them, and greed led to the other. Actually, greed overlaps into Iraq quite a bit. Halliburton and the oil companies made off like bandits with the Iraq occupation. I don’t think anyone made any money with the Immigration Resolution.
Anyway, it was easy to be vocal about NOT paying millions of dollars for the Immigration Resolution, or trillions of dollars for Iraq, but going forward with a ruined economy and a bankrupt government, what do we do now? Do we change the way we think of quality of life and how government can contribute to it? Do we become a third world county, ironically, as a result of hateful fanatics fearful of becoming a third world country????
Deregulation is a good thing. Whenever the govt regulates something, they establish a monopoly that is for sale to the highest bidding lobbyist. Enron collapsed because they were engaged in bad business. In fact, the illusion of being regulated by corrupt regulators probably contributed to the misery of all those poor people who invested into that company. The sarbanes oxley regulation that came out of the Enron mess has accomplished nothing more than crippling companies with tons of overhead.
As for PWC, we are already a third world county. All the civilized people were cast into exile.
OJ Simpson sentenced in Vegas. This guy never had a shot at a fair trial.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/35601444.html
When OJ Simpson recovers his own property, it’s called theft and he goes to jail. When the govt confiscates your property, its called taxes, or they invent some other scheme like speeding tickets, gun confiscation, etc.
Here’s OJ’s final statement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2QbEKw9BiE
The judge sentences him to years and years for being in her words ‘arrogant and ignorant’. The hilarity and mind blowing spectacle of a judge calling SOMEONE ELSE arrogant and ignorant is a new high in hypocrisy.
Why do I get the feeling that this judge spoke in the same adolescent manner when she was gossiping in high school:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFugrhFyV-4
Opinion,
You have very eloquently expressed my beliefs about growth. Look what we “grew” ourselves into, a forclosure nightmare. For several years, my working hard to protect the rural crescent was worth every moment, the inherent value of the RC clearly demonstrated why this “non-development” area is crucial to all PW taxpayers. Imagine, if you will, if developers had run rampant over the entirety of Prince William. How many more forclosures would that have added to our “inventory”, luckily we will never know. However, the Rural Crescent is always under threat of being compromised, Nokesville is clearly in the “line of site” right now.
Mike May wrote an excellent explanation of why a higher tax rate, on a local level, would be patently unfair. As it is, I am sure there will be a discrepency in tax bills, however, for those hit hardest by home values that have plummeted by 30% or more, I do believe they should be the recipients of a decreased tax assessment.
I should have added, the “running” off of immigrants, legal and otherwise, clearly has had consequences to our economic nightmare. I keep wondering, when, when is a reporter going to draw the correlation between an unprecedented drop in ESOL students and the homes they ALSO left behind. Corey can’t claim success without first explaining that conundrum! Let’s not forget, it isn’t just the homes, its all their buying power, food, gas, clothes, etc.
Mackie,
I just don’t have any sympathy for O.J. , none, none at all.
Elena, great point about taxes. M-H also pointed that out.
As for when will the dots be connected in the media? Well, remember there was a period of years between the discovery that there were no WMD’s in Iraq and no connection to 9/11 and the coming to terms with the fact that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a catastrophic mistake. We are still in 2005 territory when it comes to the Immigration Resolution.
Mackie, I have no interest in O.J. sympathy either. And as for Enron, you should do some research on that. It was deregulation that allowed for Enron to artificially blow up their earnings statements even though they were losing billions of dollars in order to drive up their stock prices. This allowed them bigwigs to defraud the employees who had 401k’s and everyday investors of billions of dollars because they sold all their stock knowing the truth would eventually be found out (while the 401k people with their life savings tied up in the company were locked out of their accounts and couldn’t sell). Also, the deregulation of California’s energy industry allowed Enron to manipulate energy prices by closing down plants for “repairs” and sending all the energy to other states and then selling it to California only when they’d manipulated them into a rolling blackout crisis. Bush only agreed to regulate energy prices in California when they got a Republican governor in (Arnold). When they had a Democratic governor the Bush administration said, “Great, let a fraudulent company rip off the consumers, they all voted for Gore anyway.”
Mike May ran away from the need to tell the hard truth. The poster PHDee pointed out the truth about the foreclosure crisis in responding to Mike May’s editorial:
Also, Enron, which was based in Houston, had been the biggest corporate contributor to Bush’s 2000 campaign. And Ken Lay, the Enron executive was rumored to be the Energy Secretary as a result. But, he just handpicked another guy who did his bidding: no regulation. Enron was a small scale version of what happened to Wall Street. No regulation. No morals. Bigwigs profit. The rest of us have to pay the price in eons of debt.
Elana,
I’m glad we are in agreement about growth. I would suggest that you keep an eye on the Comprehensive Plan (although I suspect you do already). The County deftly re-defined environmental issues into several obscure categories that will make them harder to track and enforce. I’m for saving green space and our rural environment wherever possible. It appears that the County once was; however, now… not so much. I belive they will be discussing this issue next Tuesday.
I track the tax issue also. Most homeowners will get a decrease in their tax bills in spite of an increase in the tax rate. Businesses will generally get an increase in their tax bills because commercial property hasn’t lost as much value as homes.
NGL,
I feel for the employees but it’s also true that one should never pour one’s life savings into 1 company. It’s simply way too risky. And by extension, having all your assets tied up in the market in general is a bad idea as we can all see now.
Investment carries with it risk. Some investments will be losers no matter what. You hedge those risks by diversifying.
There will always be dirty companies like Enron that engage in fraudulent practices. That is why you diversify. Regulation is an illusion.
Employers cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years
“Job losses last month were widespread, hitting factories, construction companies, financial firms, retailers, leisure and hospitality, and others industries. The few places where gains were logged included the government, education and health services.”
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081205/financial_meltdown.html?.v=21
Opinion,
When exactly were they for saving green space 🙂 ? I once had a very interesting conversation with Ruth Griggs about her term in office. She was a real loss to this county.
OJ Simpson – definitely guilty this time. He got off the other time, but his luck finally ran out!
Sure Mackie, but some of these people worked a lifetime at local electric companies that got bought up by Enron late in their scandalous run of national fraud. Their 401k’s which had been sound got eaten up in Enron’s implosion. And they weren’t allowed to get out of the market! They had to watch their life savings go up in smoke while Skiling and Lay and the rest of the Bush deregulation crooks secretly sold their stock, most of them got away with it too.
I don’t feel sorry for OJ in the least. He though he was way too special to go by the rules. He got off on his criminal trial and he hasn’t paid the Goldmans or the Browns a penny from the civil suit. His bad karma finally bit him in the ass.
Give a fool enough rope and he will hang himself. That’s what happens to people who think the rules don’t apply to them. They might win a few battles but eventually, they lose big in the end.
HMMM, I think I need to clarify my sentence about Ruth Griggs. Her NOT seeking re-election was a real loss to this county.
No one needs a government nannie until they have a problem. Then they can’t get one fast enough. But remember, the Marshall’s were real hot on downsizing government and women at home with their families until they needed a service. Don’t be a Marshall, Opinion…….
Actually, the governments main mission is treasury. Collection of revenue. Then you can move on to other services. Don’t need a police department, we have a Sheriff, don’t need paid firefighters/EMS, they can be all volunteer. That is almost 25% of the total county workforce.
If you could just be more specific Opinion about what you would downsize, it would be meaningful dialogue. Go to http://www.pwcgov.org and read the fiscal plan and give us some specific programs, associated cost and number of employee that you would cut. You might be surprised how long it takes to add up to $2million.
Later….
NGL,
People get robbed. It’s an ugly fact of life. The illusion of regulation will not stop it nor will it decrease it. In fact, it will probably facilitate it. The crooks got away with it. Wanna know why? Because of govt influence.
We have Obama now. Who may very well start regulating everyone and everything just like FDR in the name of ‘safety’. And he will turn a temporary recession into a decade long depression.
This is why OJ was never going to get a fair trial. For most people this was about what happened 13 years ago. These people ignore the fact that a blatantly racist LAPD officer lied under oath and that alone creates reasonable doubt.
If you watch OJ Simpson’s final words before he is sentenced, he looks sincere.
Did Nicole Simpson get a fair trial? How about Ron Goldman?
You could bury all of that first murder case. The authorities had much of what went down on tape.
Mackie, I am afraid your world would not be very safe for women. Nicole Simpson was an abused wife and a murdered ex-wife. Guilty people to go free. OJ was one who did.
Juturna, thanks for your insight; however, the actual mission of Prince William County Government is to provide the necessary services to protect the health, welfare, safety and environment of citizens consistent with the community’s values and priorities. is mission is accomplished by: encouraging citizen input and involvement; preserving the County’s fiscal stability; producing effective and efficient government
programs; managing the County’s resources; planning for the future and representing citizens’ needs and desires to other levels of government. http://www.pwcgov.org/docLibrary/PDF/007740.pdf
In a properly run business (Government is a business) revenue is raised (from a variety of sources – which doesn’t necessarily need to include taxes) to respond to services provided. Collection of revenue is a derived requirement necessary to satisfy Government’s mission. Less services, less a requirement for revenue. Unfortunately, some in Government focus on revenue collection and then look for ways to spend it.
Actually, I’m quite familiar with the PWC budget process. As any business owner knows, its tough to come up with 2 million dollars when you go from the bottom up (less Xerox paper, a furlough now and then, etc). If you haven’t checked the agenda for next weeks meeting, I suggest you do so.
http://www.pwcgov.org/documents/bocs/agendas/currentagenda.pdf
Pay particular attention to public works. They are actually stepping up to the problem (for which I give them credit). They are (IMHO) actually managing to the current fiscal environment and making tough decisions that will save the County $1.75 million in FY09 (by my math – which could be off a bit) and millions in the out years. This is pretty close to the $2 million dollar bogie you mentioned (and a management model I commend).
Just curious, have you ever owned or ran a business, Jutuma? I don’t mean the question as put down or an insult, I ask because those who have actually owned businesses have a different view of how to manage a Budget. We either lower expenses (the best way to increase profit is to reduce cost ) or increase sales (we can’t raise taxes). If we don’t come up with a solution, we close. Unfortunately, when it comes to Government people are too quick to raise taxes instead of asking for more efficient Government. It’s ironic that Government somehow manages to spend whatever it raises.
Good conversation