A spot o tea?

Interesting piece in The Standard Times yesterday, I think it was yesterday, about population in our area.  Boom or bust?  Someone was thinking along the same tracks I was when reading the story, leaving a comment on Saturday's post related to it.

The boom happens if the train happens, or by some miracle the residential home market booms again. The off shore wind turbine stuff could provide a mini-boom.  A casino would certainly bring an influx of people looking for work, however not likely to spread too far from New Bedford.

Those types of report have been coming out for years, with the same competing predictions. Heck I can point you to a report or two from the 60's/70's that has this town in the 20,000 population. 

Some interesting chatter going on about several reports issued on several matters lately actually.

Anyway ....

Non-government forecasts show the state revenue increasing in an amount of approximately $1.1 billion dollars.  Sometime this week the state will release its projection for FY 2015, which will form the basis for budget proposals.

That's a whole lot of money.  Sounds really good. Except when the state budget itself and the portion funded by that revenue is in the tens of billions of dollars (and I mean multiple tens by the way). When the state share for its fixed costs is calculated, the local communities will see the real "trickle" down effect of using taxes and fees increases as the basis of a trickle down economy. If trickle down is a failure in the "free" economy, just what is it in a government economy?

Biggest city first, than your "gateways", than the "other" cities than the suburban spread factor. 

If we are lucky, we won't end up with a net loss like last year.

Goal number should be to figure out how do we keep what we have.  That should be the goal at every single level of government.  Yet at every single level of government you constantly hear and have to deal with proposals to expand.  

How many times do we hear it won't cost any more, we won't need any more people, it will pay for itself? Can someone out there point out where that has turned out to be the case?

We create necessities.  We create demands.  

We somehow loss sight of the fact, that there is only one level of government that gets to print money. We constantly lose sight of the fact that no mater how hard you try to avoid it at the local level, every dollar you spend on one thing has to be diverted from spending it on something else.

No I am not ignoring the fact that every dollar comes from the tax payer.  We know that all ready.  Just as we also know there isn't going to be a tax break with out some big reductions in services.

The oft used reason for a spending request, "What cost a life?"  No one should ever have to answer that question, or figure it out. No one.

Yet it has to be answered, sometimes directly and bluntly and more often indirectly, but never, ever by those who use it when it is pointed out how their cost could cost a life. 

It just doesn't apply to the "cost of a life".  Vital and essential, necessary, must have.  Ask where the money is going to come from, 99 out of a hundred times the reply is essentially that is up to you to figure it out, all the requester knows is it is vital and essential, necessary, must have.

If it is beyond your willingness or pay grade to have to answer that question as to the effect of your spending, than it should also be beyond your pay grade to pose the question in the first place.

If you want roadwork and building repair and rec centers and elderly programs and shell fishing and parks and recreation; if you want service 5 days a week at town hall, weekend operation of the recycling center, neat looking public lawns and roadsides, traffic control, set-up and cleanup services for fairs and parades and races, reduced rates for not for profits, free programs for certain groups, etc., etc., bottom line is the "what cost" has gone from priceless to setting a budget to provide for all the other things and public safety.

A whole lot of people do a whole lot of complaining now about the quality and quantity of service or more appropriately lack thereof that they all ready get. Yes I know, always room for improvement and was to become more efficient.

People want on demand services, yet as we all know, there is an extra cost for it. 

Yes I also know we can always take from A to give to B.  B is always willing to take from A. While that makes everyone who wants B happy, that leave the problem of those who think A is more important.

Therein lies the rub, as always.  Your cup of tea is someone else's poison.