The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reports that the NYS Senate and Assembly want to wait before acting on Governor Patterson's request to cut an additional $2 billion from the State's budget. Apparently, they want to see the most accurate revenue projections before deciding on further cuts. They also refuse to talk about cuts in education funding. Now, with the Dow going under 8600 today, isn't it time to start looking for additional cuts to the state budget?
Unfortunately, we're talking about cutting education. But then again, there aren't that many areas that we can cut. Health care is generally off the table too. And, while now would seem to be the time to pull together some real structural reforms to these various systems, state government just kind of moves along as if everything is dandy. Maybe I'm just ignorant, and unaware of some very hard work to reform medicaid, the welfare system, education, and a host of other state supported functions. But my guess is they're not really tackling these issues.
And on the local level, whatever happened to the ongoing discussions around government consolidations? I'm not necessarily talking about the very politically unpopular idea of merging City and County governments, but what about those areas that are not political hot potatoes? Like lighting, water, snow plowing, and some other "low hanging fruit"? The problem with consolidation, though, is that no one is willing to give up power, and that's what consolidation is.
If I'm running Environmental Services for the City, am I willing to give up power to the County to manage things like dog licenses, dead animal removal, street sweeping, underpass cleaning, and a host of other functions? Am I willing to lay off government workers, and thus decrease my sphere of influence? If our leaders really wanted to make a difference, the conversation on government consolidation would be restarted, especially now.
The fact is that the economy may be in the doldrums for the next few years. Why not start the process of making government more efficient today, so that when the economy is growing again, the government entities that are left prosper even more? Do the City or the County really relish the annual announcements of budget deficits, cuts to essential services, and political wrangling to suggest that if only the Dem's or the Repub's were in control of things, we wouldn't be in this mess?
We have an opportunity in New York State and the Rochester region (obviously, Syracuse, Buffalo, et al do as well) to significantly improve the efficiency of government, laying the groundwork for successful government, and maybe even State, County and City budget surpluses when times are good again. Imagine if we were to improve the efficiency of City and County government by, oh, let's just pick a number... 22%. When the economy is roaring again, this more efficient government would see significant increases in tax revenues (sales tax, hotel/motel tax, property tax, etc.) that, if managed properly, could be set aside to make up for shortfalls in bad times. Granted, you'd have to legislate so that surpluses had to go into the equivalent of an endowment - as we all know government likes nothing more than to spend spend spend.
Sure, my IRA has seen it's value drop by nearly 50% over the last 6 months... but this is also an opportunity to invest more in quality stocks and mutual funds so that I can reap the benefits when the economy is strong again. Similarly, let's take this as an opportunity to increase the quality of government through enhanced efficiency. The opportunity is real, and the degree of urgency is high!
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