Budget hearing tomorrow

I'm not sure how to explain it to my boss, but I intend to take off work early again tomorrow to attend the city budget hearing  at 1800 in the Utility Collections Building large conference room.  I hope I see you there. Just in case, I also sent comments to the budget email address, citybudget@killeentexas.gov

Here's what I sent.  I bet you can do better, especially if you have items you think belong on the wish list:


There are two aspects of the city budget process that I think get less attention than they should, and which are especially important in years when a guiding assumption is that expenditures must stay nearly constant.

The first is that we should be explicit about what we decide to forego.  Somewhere (I hope) there is a budget wish-list where all the ideas for things we could spend money on go to die.  The list I imagine has  ideas good, bad and debatable; but which share the common fate that they did not make the cut for the 2012/13 budget.  The list should be part of the public budget review.

The second is that we should clearly understand the consequences of austerity.  I'm pretty sure this is being done internally, but is not being well communicated.  To take a made-up example, say KPD budgeted no increase in their expenditure for 2012/13 over 2011/12.  We know that in general their costs for existing services will rise 2% over that period.  What will KPD do in this hypothetical case to make up that 2%?

• Will they cut patrol hours?
• Will they trim administrative staff?
• Will they forego fleet upgrades?
• Will they get a grant to cover the difference?
• Will they discover and eliminate inefficiencies (and if so, where)?

This is of course not meant to pick on Chief Baldwin and his department. Rather it should be a public part of the analysis of every department's budget.  Understanding the differences in what we get for our money this year as compared to last is a key part of making sure we are making the right budget decisions.

Bob Blair