Eric Martin over at Obsidian Wings is busy mocking the city of Colorado Springs because the voters there told the city that, no, they can’t raise taxes to cover their expenses. Thus, the city is following the time tested pattern of making very visible cuts in the primary services a city should provide (police, fire, schools, infrastructure, etc). Unfortunately for the city, the citizens aren’t buying it and are demanding an accounting of the budget.
Good for them.
Now, it may be that the city really needs that much money to function, or the city may have way too many programs that are not essential to a functioning city. Hopefully the voters of Colorado Springs will stay involved and decide on a budget that they can live with.
The Navy has a system that would take care of this: If the boat runs low on cash, the enlisted men are paid first, the officers are paid last.
I think that would be a fine way to run a government. Those who vote on the budget should be the first to feel the shortfall.
In this modern day and age of the Internet, there is absolutely no reason why every governmental budget, from the lowest municipality up to the federal government itself, should not be publicly available, searchable, and downloadable in an easy-to-read XLS format. Sure, once you go federal, certain areas would probably have to be redacted, but that can be kept to a minimum, and watched accordingly.
After all, this is our money, and the government (at any level) is using it at our discretion – we should know where it ended up, and how it was (mis)used.
Pull Pin, then Toss:
Local gov’t bureaucrat here— er– highway authority department head, working for three elected officals—
What are the chances the city employees are union with generous contracts and political influence?? Huh?
My tax levy max is fixed by state code, costs of labor, equipment and materials; and heavy highway construction are not decreasing. The top line of my budget is flat, cost are increasing, therefore sooner or later, the dollars available for services is decreasing.
A licensed professional working in the for 19 years. Shrug. I’ve always been looking for ways to do more with the same money or less men or bigger equipment. Will the results diminish sometime? Absolutely– but I still 1150 miles and 295 bridges to take care of. Downsizing the system sounds good until it’s the roadway in front of your house or business or farm.
Regards,
ML27
ML27:
Phil has a follow-up post on this topic, and one of his commenters has a good point about the city spending $22 million to keep the US Olympic Committee in town. Sometimes a city is just low on money, and sometimes they piss away the kitty on projects that “sounded good at the time”.