|
Georgia city shows how to cut costs effectively
By Geoffrey Segal
With the Florida Legislature now seemingly intent on mandating lower property taxes, some local-government officials around the state are warning of severe service cuts. They want you to imagine libraries shutting down, your 911 call going unanswered, or your local jail turning inmates loose.
Yet if those same officials would only turn their gaze a bit farther north, they could observe a Georgia city that demonstrates how Florida's local governments could not only survive but also thrive, with big savings for taxpayers.
Indeed, the experiment in Sandy Springs, Ga., has proved that local governments don't need hundreds of public employees to function. Sandy Springs, a fast-growing town of more than 80,000 residents, has only four non-public-safety employees. Except for police and fire, virtually every government function has been contracted out.
In its two years under private management, Sandy Springs hasn't needed a tax hike or a fee increase, the government has become more responsive, the service quality has improved, and so has customer satisfaction. The residents love it.
In fact, this model has worked so well that two other Atlanta-area communities adopted it last year, and several others are considering a similar approach. Moreover, communities as far away as West Chester, Ohio, and Castle Pines, Colo., have announced that they are also considering the Sandy Springs model.
How could Florida's communities follow suit? First, they could take a page from management guru Peter Drucker and require that every "traditional" service or function prove that it's a proper role of government.
Second, they could apply to local government Drucker's famous test for business: "If we weren't doing this yesterday, would we do it today?" Some services may well be discontinued rather than contracted out.
Indeed, certain services that some other cities provide won't necessarily be provided by Sandy Springs - either because they've outgrown their purpose, they're no longer effective, or they're outside the proper scope of government.
Florida's local officials can determine on a case-by-case basis whether it makes more sense for their community to "make" or "buy" public services. If they decide to buy, there are numerous functions that are readily available on the marketplace and could be easily contracted out to the private sector.
Moreover, criticism of the way Florida's state government handled contracts for the outsourcing of selected government services shouldn't deter local officials from experimenting. At the state level, the problem arguably wasn't in the game plan but in the execution.
The Sandy Springs model teaches us an important lesson:"Business as usual" isn't the only operational model for local governments. Moreover, local governments need not adopt the entire model; rather, they can choose some services or entire departments to outsource to achieve savings.
Granted, such a change won't necessarily be easy for local governments. Over the years some have become addicted to spending more and more of your hard-earned dollars. The insatiable beast never seems to be satisfied, always wanting more and more. And public employee unions, now the largest component of the labor movement, wield a lot of clout at the local level - especially in several of Florida's largest cities and counties.
Yet with a tax revolt brewing, something needs to be done to shake things up. For too many years local governments have been on auto-pilot when it comes to budgeting. They generally tend to spend more than they did the year before, with little real consideration of how sustainable that spending trend would be over the long term. Moreover, key budgeting decisions are too often based on consuming whatever revenue is available rather than the minimum required to get the job done.
By breaking the mold and encouraging the kind of innovation and creativity that Sandy Springs exemplifies, Florida's local governments could become more efficient and effective. Rooting out waste can also allow the funding of new programs and/or the expansion of existing programs that deserve to be expanded, all without raising taxes.
When local officials make efficient government their goal - as in Sandy Springs - and are unwilling to be held hostage by outdated processes, citizens reap the dividends. In Florida, rethinking how local governments operates can be the key to providing real property-tax relief.
Geoffrey Segal is director of government reform at Reason Foundation. An archive of his work is here and Reason's government reform research and commentary is here.
CSI for Real: How to Improve Forensic Science
» Full Text (.pdf)
Measure 50: Are Tobacco Taxes The Answer To Funding Children's Health Programs?
» Full Text (.pdf)
Streamlining San Diego: Achieving Taxpayer Savings and Government Reforms Through Managed Competition
» Full Text (.pdf)
» Press Release
Occupational Licensing: Ranking the States and Exploring Alternatives
» Full Study (.pdf)
» Policy Summary (.pdf)
» State-by-State Occupational Licensing List (.xls)
» Press Release with Complete Rankings
Annual Privatization Report 2007
» Full Report
» Press Release
Innovators in Action 2007
» Full Report
» Press Release
More Studies
Reining in Job Licensing Laws in Arizona
» Full Text
Scrap the Visa Cap
» Full Text
Why Penalize Peter to Deport Pablo?
» Full Text
Occupational Licensing Laws Protect Special Interests, Not the Public
» Full Text
What Hillary Is Hiding
Her tax records, pork...
» Full Text
Payday Loans Get Pink Slip in California
» Full Text
Competition Can Solve Atlanta's Budget Crunch
» Full Text
Eliot Spitzer and the Seduction of Crusader Politics
» Full Text
More Commentaries
|
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.