Why Local Governments are in Trouble
Posted 06-16-2011 at 11:46 PM by SCGranny
The fact is that most elected officials don't realize that there are algebraic equations that control costs and spending for services. Say Detroit gets a $2 million Federal grant to build a new prison. They cheerfully hire architects and planners to build a brand-new, state of the art prison.
They don't consider all of the other costs involved, both up-front and yearly, to maintain that prison - water, sewer, more correctional officers hired-trained-outfitted-benefitted, office staff, computers, and equipment, the costs (ever rising) of fuel, heating, A/C, and food for not only the prisoners but the staff. Because they see the $2 million as a 'gift', they don't realize that the ultimate costs to even open the prison, much less run it year-to-year, could easily be double or triple that. They got their 'free' money, they'll make it work.
And so it goes with most projects; the long-term costs are often prohibitive, no matter how amazing and wonderful they appear in the beginning. And let's be fair - the housing and resultant service-job boom that everyone thought would pour needed tax dollars into every town, city, and state failed, and failed miserably - right after many governments, small and large, 'gave away' infrastructure to the developers and builders, based solely on the hope of a burgeoning tax base of new homes and new businesses.
And you'd better believe that, the whole time those developers were shaking the mayors' and councilmembers' hands at each approved venture, from houses to strip malls to rebuilding inner city blocks, they were laughing to themselves at the elected officals' gullibility. They know how much infrastructure costs - down to the dollar how much it costs to put one fully-outfitted, paid police officer on the street, how much building or expanding water and sewer plants costs, how much new and repaired street lighting, paving, and sidewalks cost, how much public transportation costs.
But they also knew how to blind those elected officals' eyes to those costs, by promising them a whole, brand-new, and exciting revenue stream of tax dollars. Like open-mouthed rubes at a magician's show, the elected officials' eyes were alight at the shiny toy in the developer/magicians' right hands, never noticing that they were picking their pockets with their left hands...
So the only thing left to do is to cut the budgets, and cut them drastically. Unfortunately, again, most elected officals are in panic mode right now - they have to do something, anything, and do it quickly and decisively - and they really don't understand for the most part how to do it, or where to do it - only that they must, right now. They have no more idea how to do it now than they knew how to refuse (or at least carefully spend) those multimilliondollar grants and programs that they got "for free" or than they knew how to tell a developer to pay for his own infrastructure.
Rather than screaming, "Don't cut that!" or "You CAN'T cut this!" - get your hands on a budget and try to figure out, line by line, for yourselves where the cuts have to be made, who will be the least impacted, who will be the most impacted - and develop a real workable, fiscal plan.
Don't have the time, necessary knowledge, or patience? Neither do most of those people whom you have elected to represent you. All they have is a steadily dwindling, steadily-becoming-unemployed revenue source - the people who pay the taxes.
You.
But you're not alone. Everyone else, all across the country, voted for people whom they thought they could trust, who promised them more and more amenities, more and more new businesses, more and more opportunities, and who seemed to know what they were talking about when they said that they had a verified revenue opportunity, a government grant, a stimulus program, that they couldn't refuse.
You have choices to make, as do your elected officials, as do most of the people in this country right now. And those choices are - do we continue to place our trust in the people who promised us prosperity, or do we face some cold hard truths about money, economics, and finance; and tighten our belts and prepare to do without? What are you willing to do without? Your wonderful public places, your amenities, your infratructure of everything from cops to water and sewer, from pothole repairs to snow removal - or more of your tax dollars?
And don't forget - those government monies, grants, and stimulus programs all come with a signed agreement that says that you must do those things, you must commit workers and your own monies to the stated project - or you have to give it all back and pay fines for not using/misusing it. How many Peters can you rob to pay all of the Pauls with their hands out, from DC bureaucrats to the teacher or firefighter next door?
They don't consider all of the other costs involved, both up-front and yearly, to maintain that prison - water, sewer, more correctional officers hired-trained-outfitted-benefitted, office staff, computers, and equipment, the costs (ever rising) of fuel, heating, A/C, and food for not only the prisoners but the staff. Because they see the $2 million as a 'gift', they don't realize that the ultimate costs to even open the prison, much less run it year-to-year, could easily be double or triple that. They got their 'free' money, they'll make it work.
And so it goes with most projects; the long-term costs are often prohibitive, no matter how amazing and wonderful they appear in the beginning. And let's be fair - the housing and resultant service-job boom that everyone thought would pour needed tax dollars into every town, city, and state failed, and failed miserably - right after many governments, small and large, 'gave away' infrastructure to the developers and builders, based solely on the hope of a burgeoning tax base of new homes and new businesses.
And you'd better believe that, the whole time those developers were shaking the mayors' and councilmembers' hands at each approved venture, from houses to strip malls to rebuilding inner city blocks, they were laughing to themselves at the elected officals' gullibility. They know how much infrastructure costs - down to the dollar how much it costs to put one fully-outfitted, paid police officer on the street, how much building or expanding water and sewer plants costs, how much new and repaired street lighting, paving, and sidewalks cost, how much public transportation costs.
But they also knew how to blind those elected officals' eyes to those costs, by promising them a whole, brand-new, and exciting revenue stream of tax dollars. Like open-mouthed rubes at a magician's show, the elected officials' eyes were alight at the shiny toy in the developer/magicians' right hands, never noticing that they were picking their pockets with their left hands...
So the only thing left to do is to cut the budgets, and cut them drastically. Unfortunately, again, most elected officals are in panic mode right now - they have to do something, anything, and do it quickly and decisively - and they really don't understand for the most part how to do it, or where to do it - only that they must, right now. They have no more idea how to do it now than they knew how to refuse (or at least carefully spend) those multimilliondollar grants and programs that they got "for free" or than they knew how to tell a developer to pay for his own infrastructure.
Rather than screaming, "Don't cut that!" or "You CAN'T cut this!" - get your hands on a budget and try to figure out, line by line, for yourselves where the cuts have to be made, who will be the least impacted, who will be the most impacted - and develop a real workable, fiscal plan.
Don't have the time, necessary knowledge, or patience? Neither do most of those people whom you have elected to represent you. All they have is a steadily dwindling, steadily-becoming-unemployed revenue source - the people who pay the taxes.
You.
But you're not alone. Everyone else, all across the country, voted for people whom they thought they could trust, who promised them more and more amenities, more and more new businesses, more and more opportunities, and who seemed to know what they were talking about when they said that they had a verified revenue opportunity, a government grant, a stimulus program, that they couldn't refuse.
You have choices to make, as do your elected officials, as do most of the people in this country right now. And those choices are - do we continue to place our trust in the people who promised us prosperity, or do we face some cold hard truths about money, economics, and finance; and tighten our belts and prepare to do without? What are you willing to do without? Your wonderful public places, your amenities, your infratructure of everything from cops to water and sewer, from pothole repairs to snow removal - or more of your tax dollars?
And don't forget - those government monies, grants, and stimulus programs all come with a signed agreement that says that you must do those things, you must commit workers and your own monies to the stated project - or you have to give it all back and pay fines for not using/misusing it. How many Peters can you rob to pay all of the Pauls with their hands out, from DC bureaucrats to the teacher or firefighter next door?
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