Governmental Budgets: Frustration

This is an op-ed from Jimmy Settle of the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle.

I know that he discusses a “Montgomery County” issue, but I wanted to point this out because his laments are the same laments we face here in Robertson County.

[T]his is the hand we've been dealt for now. It's a fact of life in private business as well. It's just that, in government, it's all public record so those in leadership roles have to openly share all the grim details.

April is here and that means budget hearings are starting up in local government. The various department heads will be arriving at meetings with their hands out — knowing they probably won't get nearly all they ask for in the coming fiscal year.

I try to keep abreast of our neighbors, whether geographically adjacent, or neighbors in spirit of like-resources and like-issues and concerns.

This “new normal” isindeed  frustrating.

 Door-to-door, neighbor-neighbor-to-neighbor, constituent-to-constituent – folks expressed to me that there was a reciprocal frustration they had with government.

It was a frustration with government waste.

 It was a common theme that governments have not been good stewards of the resources that they were given during the “good ole days” – whether at the national, state or local levels.

With that said, as the budgeting process does kick off in the weeks and months ahead, myself, and my fellow commissioners need to remember this frustration. So many folks will be “arriving with their hands out.”

We are all feeling the effects of this recession, and for whatever reason, government entities rarely exhibit the effects from economic slowdowns.