Originally Posted by l2ridehd

EVERY time there is discussion about cutting RE taxes, EVERY official of that town, county, or city ALWAYS says they will have to cut fire, police and schools. It is the places they know they can cause the most pain so people will say "no, don't cut taxes" and then they have more power and more money to waste.

For some reason they are never smart enough to look elsewhere. If we ran our businesses like our local governments, we would all fail. I get asked to do more with less every year at budget time. And I have to find creative ways to make that happen. Governments just raise taxes and make us pay. Time to elect new officials and get ones that know how to use a business approach to these things.

I am asked to improve productivity at a minimum of 8% every year. Take the same base you had the prior year, look at what was spent, reduce it by 8%, adjust it up or down based on growth or reduction in scope and that becomes the new budget. So the productivity improvements have to happen in order to meet objectives. And a real novel approach, I am paid on how well I do that.

Cities, towns and counties should be set up the same way.