Linn County Crossroads
To grow or not to grow — the Linn County budget
Posted on Nov 03, 2009 by Adam Belz.
The Linn County Supervisors will decide tomorrow what kind of budget they’re going to have in the coming fiscal year. Will it grow by a specific, across-the-board percentage, or will it only grow when the growth is specifically justified by the department head asking for the money?
Brent Oleson has a lengthy discussion of the issue on his blog. Sounds like he’s not getting the votes to do what he wants, which is zero-based budgeting, or requiring department heads to justify any budget increases. Here’s an excerpt:
Zero-based budgeting is being poo-poo’ed by some because it is too much work, it is “scary” and unfamiliar to department managers, and there isn’t enough time. Boo hoo. There is plenty of time to do this if we make the time, which means we need to be focused and forthright in what we expect of very highly paid and trained governmental managers. We just need the will to do the right thing for the taxpayer. I am not sure our BOS has it.
Zero based budgeting makes about as much sense as whacking yourself with a hammer every Monday and expecting a different result. Contractual wage increases are already negotiated, health-insurance rate increases are already negotiated. If they want to have a discussion about something, they should talk about the services they provide. Then increase or decrease the service level based on the available funds. Duh.