Still a cold reality

It is another cold day.  Of course it is also just the second week of January too.

Thanks to the commentator for identifying his or her third "white elephant".  No sure I still understand it.  The collapsed building? If so there is definite progress on that, maybe not moving as fast as some may want or as may be warranted, but progress nonetheless.

Personally, I was thinking of three other potential "white elephants".  

Anyway, I am sure we each have a number of those creatures in mind.

Moving on to the next exhibit in our menagerie, the 800 pound gorilla. 

Budgets and the process.  I have been asked a number of times over the past week "why" departments are being asked for 4 different budget scenarios.  Good question.

Here is the personal reasoning of this one individual as to why three scenarios were asked, and as to the fourth well I can only offer you a guess.  The 0%, 1% and 2% salary scenarios were/are based on estimated revenue and expenditures.  Because those figures will not become more "exact" until possibly just before the annual T.M. one needs to have alternate information to deal with the future possibility.

Figures at the time the budget guidelines for those percentages indicated that those were the percentages that created a worst case to best case range.  Why not any guidance relative to operational cost?  Well there was.  Assuming one takes everyone else at their word, and operational costs are presently at a bare bones level, one has to assume further cuts to that side would make no sense.  Ain't no point funding salaries if you don't have the where with all to for the people you are going to pay to do their jobs.

Also, after being involved for 20 years or so, allowing people to cut operation costs, only to see them sometime during the year look for additional T.M. appropriations or reserve fund transfers doesn't really solve any budget issues does it.  Sure one can always say no to such requests and it does happen.  Often however those requests out of necessity have to be met or it is the general public which ends up suffering.

So if we take everyone at their word, operational costs are what they are (don't get me wrong, that side is still going to be looked at). Additionally, if people read the information for the process they were provided, they know adjustment will be made when necessary and warranted, i.e. not every department will be held to the same "standard".  Why that isn't fair you may say, and some have so stated.

You know what, it only is "not fair" if you assume every department should be treated equally.  That is one assumption I have made clear for years that in my bizarre universe absolutely does not exist.

There are essential services and then there are services which make life easier for everyone, government and general public alike, and then there are plain and simple perks.  Within each are sub-parts that can and should be tweaked constantly and some just plain eliminated, and not just because times are tough.

Here is the biggest problem faced by everyone. Year in and year out most departments look at the budget from the perspective of how much was received last year, and not from the perspective of what is needed to do things next year.  

Building budgets from the ground up can be a pain in the rear, I acknowledge that.  But at least periodically, every three to five years minimum, every budget should be looked at from the perspective of starting brand new.  

What have I been doing that I really don't need?  What has been effective and what has not?  Is this service being used to a level to warrant it being continued? 

Fin. Comm., Town Meeting and even the selectmen on occasions, should not be the only parties that say "no".   Yes government is in business to provide a service, but it doesn't exist to provide every service every person wants or demands.

And heaven forbid that those services which are provided be done so within an existing budget.  

Do I realize that this means at times some very tough decisions need to be made. I absolutely do.  Does it concern and bother me at times that a tough decision may very well have severe results? Yes it does. It absolutely does.

Deep inside me lurks the "Pillsbury Dough Boy", fighting to jump out and kept from escaping by the hard door of reality locked shut.  You can only bake so many rolls from a can of dough. You can stretch it a bit thin, many eke out another one or two.  

You have to realize not everyone who wants a roll is going to have their hunger satisfied with just one.   You also have to realize in order to serve as many people as possible, some are still going to go away hungry, and some are going to have to be turned away without anything.  

Maybe a dumb analogy.  Maybe a bit sappy.  Nonetheless a reality.

Enough for today.  

Be safe.