RIC LLEWELLYN: Lessons to learn from Recovery Summer
| Friday, Jul 23 2010 12:51 PM
Last Updated Friday, Jul 23 2010 12:51 PM
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Alex Horvath / The Californian Columnist Ric Llewellyn
Did you hear? It's Recovery Summer! So it must not be too early to start talking about the financial lessons we learned over the last couple of years. We have learned some lessons, right?
Lesson Number One: The good times don't last forever. When the economy is good and tax revenues are rolling in, it's OK for the government to spend money. Just not all of it and then some!
The tide turns. The bubble bursts. Whatever image you want to use, there always comes a day when the economy weakens. Revenues decline. Expenditures must be reduced.
With that in mind, I hope we all -- and especially the people spending our money -- learned that we must stop spending every dime we have available simply because it is there.
Relentlessly adding programs that represent perpetual entitlements and long-term debt service are a millstone around our community's neck. Kern County's debt service in fiscal 2010-2011, for example, will probably exceed $4.5 million.
We have no one but ourselves to blame for cuts in education delivery, reductions in public safety services and neglected infrastructure projects.
The Greenfield Union School District is faced with cutting 27 teacher positions and two administrative jobs. Talk of closing three rural county fire stations was only quelled when a little extra money was discovered at the last minute. And the Kern County Parks and Recreation Department has cut about $1 million from its budget, reducing staff and slashing maintenance.
Every time someone cajoled the government for another project or service, we all said, "Why not?" Well, now we know. Our income expands and contracts with the times. But our need -- or at least what we think we need -- never does. Let's rethink our needs.
Lesson Number Two: Let our communities take care of themselves. No, don't just let us, enable us. Make it easy for us to take care of the needy, the disabled or infirm. Let us develop our own networks. And give our supporters incentives to step up in times of need. The government is a lousy agent for philanthropy.
Don't stifle our passion for the work by wrapping us up in bureaucratic red tape. Don't weaken our resolve by making us dependent on your charity. We do the work because we love our parents, children, siblings and friends. You do it because it is politically expedient.
You waste time and money building a service delivery system that has many employees, buildings and procedures to follow. And when times get tough, your machine still gobbles up resources we could put to better use.
We know how to do more with less. Unlike the government, we must. When our incomes shrink because of inflation or weak economic growth or lost jobs, we tighten our belts and make sure the absolute necessities are handled first. So if you let us, we will make sure the social needs of our communities are covered -- in good times and in bad.
Lesson Number Three: Don't risk the future. Even though it is clear there are unavoidable cycles in our economy, our representatives generally take this fact too lightly in their decision-making.
Take, for example, pensions. Public service jobs are often not the most lucrative jobs. Incentives are offered to attract people who want to serve but need to provide for their families and their futures. That works pretty well in a boom.
Instead of betting on the future with an irrevocable pension structure, let's tie the incentive to current conditions. A "signing bonus" might work. Perhaps a service anniversary award would be appropriate. And I don't mean a belt buckle or a plaque. I mean a significant contribution to retirement plans that meaningfully addresses the same need as a pension.
Something needs to be done. Serious discussions on reducing pension benefits for future Bakersfield police officers and firefighters are already under way. Now is the time to innovate. We can shift the incentive from being a long-term liability to an immediate expense and still provide the incentives to serve.
It is not pensions or benefits per se that are the problem. It is the fact that administrators bet on the future in such a way so as to encumber us all with their well-meaning but shortsighted actions. As we've seen, it can be very hard to pull back.
There are some who have seen the light. In attempting to manage budget cuts, Standard School District Superintendent Kevin Silberberg said in a Californian story earlier this month that it's not wise to dig deeper into reserves because they will be needed to make up for expected budget shortfalls in the coming years.
I hope we don't forget that when times are once again good.
I'm sure you can think of more lessons as the "Recovery Tour" crisscrosses the country reassuring us. But right now while the painful reality of a not-so-recovered 2010 beats down like a Bakersfield summer day, we should plan for the coming wave of prosperity and how we will manage its certain ebb. Better than this time, I hope.
-- Ric Llewellyn is one of four conservative community columnists whose work appears here every Saturday. These are the opinions of Llewellyn, not necessarily The Californian's. You can send e-mail to him at rllewellyn@bakersfield.com. Next week: Ralph Bailey.
