Serious scrutiny of local budgets is underway as elected officials and finance staff face lower-than-expected revenues for the second half of the fiscal year. While this is producing lots of hand-wringing, I say it’s a good thing. That’s right – a good thing. Politicians are rarely forced to assess what they’re spending money on, department by department, line by line. The economic downturn is forcing them to do just that.
In Wake County, for example, manager David Cooke is proposing a 4 percent budget cut to offset a projected shortfall of $23 million. It sounds like a huge cut, but in reality, it’s not. And according to this News & Observer story, Cooke understands that fact.
The cuts would trim the county budget from $984.4 million to $961.4 million.
“There are no reductions in here that could cause someone to lose their jobs,” Cooke said to the commissioners about the cuts now proposed. “This is a walk in the park right here. What’s coming will be more difficult.”
So exactly what will be cut if Wake commissioners approve Cooke’s proposal next week?
At county libraries, for example, overdue notices will now be left on borrowers’ voice mail or sent by e-mail to save on postage. The purchases of some new books will be delayed. The “Wake Reads Together” program, a communitywide reading initiative that aims to have everyone reading the same book at the same time, will be canceled.
To save on salary costs, 237 jobs are being held vacant in the county government, which has a work force of about 3,800.
In short, Wake County’s quality of life won’t be impacted by a 4 percent cut. That says something.
Every county budget is facing similar scrutiny. Again, I say it’s a good thing. Keep in mind, in addition to ending expenditures like those Wake plans to cut, there are more fundamental issues officials should use this downturn to address. Chad Adams, director of JLF’s Center for Local Innovation, discusses two major issues in this commentary appropriately headlined “Learning To Do More With Less.” At the top of Adams’ list of cost savers:
First and foremost, city and county government should pass resolutions asking the state to disallow local financial incentives. These are chronic wastes of time and money at the local level. Such grants of taxpayer money inevitably go to companies already in the community, or are provided to companies moving from county to county, resulting in a net revenue decrease rather than a creation of jobs.
