THOUGHTS ON BUDGETS

Why haven't we listened to our wise ancestors. For instance Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Samuel Kercheval on 7/12/1816 wrote "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. ". But that was before we had entitlements and mandatory benefits.

However today's federal , state, and local money problems concerned  wise men many years ago. Cicero the great Roman Senator and Author in 55BC declared "The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."  How familiar and will continue to be ignored. This is what will give rise to an increase impact of the "Tea Party' movement which in the long run may well be dangerous to our way of life.

It is a simple fact, if you don't have the money you can't spend it.   Nations get around it by borrowing from the future which will not have the capability to pay off. So Governments devalue the currency by printing paper. Or the value of the purchasing power decrease so that it cost more, in our case dollars, for products. That is why in 1946 a $ 5,000.00  income was enough to trigger a low level routine audit.A $3.00office visit (that is right) will now cost under Medicare $75.00 or 25 times as much and your 17 cents a gallon gas is now almost $4.00. That is why the $65.00 a month my wife received as a head nurse would not pay one day's work today. Mandatory annual raises causes  increases in product prices which reduce the true value or purchasing value of the work dollar.


All this is why our increasing tax dollars are buying less service per dollar. And who suffers the most. Those, of course, on fixed incomes such as Social Security which has had no or substandard COLA increase over the years, or the elderly on fixed pension plans and  certainly the elderly living off their savings for their old age. Most do not have the sophistication to gamble on the stock marked  and if in fixed securities the dollar amount value may stay but the income dollar buys less so that other means of existing  has to be employed.


Here is what will be contentious, but one of the greatest problems with our economy  lies in the Federal, State, and local civil services employees with their contracts that provide mandatory raises each year without even a consideration of productivity or merit. The Civil Service Unions and the teacher's associations have demonstrated what good citizens they are. Not only have most not made concessions since they know that their services are critical that the government unit could not tolerate a strike without  a complete break down of  authority control or complete civil anarchy.

Instead  governmental entities adapt by not controlling expenses, but by reducing services and firing needed employees who are not as well protected by contracts.  



One tragic comparison is that in  industry, despite contracts in times of fiscal distress if the Union doesn't  make some adjustments the industry can and will pack up and leave for other parts of the country or even to other nations. Transportation today make that a feasible alternative.

To my dismay I have learned that the local Teachers union has signed an agreement with the BOE that will give them a 4.25% raise retroactive for last year, a 2.5% raise this school year, and a 3% raise for next year. And we Social Security recipients were told that there was no cost of living raise this year and that our net will be less  due to increase medicare insurance costs. 


Another question lies with the teacher's contract is their responsibility towards their health care plans ands pension funds. has their been any change that might balance out the raises. 

There are other items including the Charter Schools and  special schools such as the  Bracha Obama Academy  and PAAAS that should be be reviewed with a fine comb to see if the taxpayer is getting sufficient value for their increased operational costs at the expense of all the other students in the system. There certainly is a place for an Alternative  Program that may rehabilitate problem children, but perhaps their is a shared services that could be more efficient. The re should be program separation that will benefit the gift child but  the nature of a special school completely funded by the District must syphon off funds needed for the other schools.  I am not knowledgeable enough to make a decision on this but the BOE owes it to the public in defense of their fiduciary responsibility to publish an explanation.

With that we have come a full circle back to 55BC and Cicero. We must control our costs by focusing on essential core services and not compromising on  them . It is the Administration and Council's job to determine these services with the help of public input. No personal agenda should be allowed to cause a deviation from that goal.


The other "given" is strict control of "labor" costs. Out of a set amount of available funds the bottom line of effective service must be determined along with the number fo individuals needed.  If that means that there will be cuts in individual reimbursements or perks, so be it. WE must all learn to live with reality.