Town Vs. Gowns.
By Jim Conley • Feb 14th, 2008 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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I think it is hard to miss that Brookline’s over-ride debate comes down to town departments versus the school department ( a new twist on towns vs. gowns). Will the override be packaged so that voters are forced to vote on a full $6-8 million override? Or will specific items be voted on (like the world languages program)?
I’m betting on a bundle. The Brookline Selectmen know that if it’s a choice between schools and covering their operating deficit, the school community will split their ballot in favor of their programs. It’s basic politics.
Folks, the fundamental problem with your municipal budget is the method used to create it. The town administration budgets using a revenue-based method. They determine how much revenue they will generate in a given year and then carve up the budget using a host of fixed variables (including the ridiculous town/school partnership that splits the operating revenue in half for each).
A more effective budgeting technique is the program-based budget (PBB). The fundamental principle of the PBB is that a program is funded in accordance with its ability to perform within the set of other programs. A hierarchy is created and funds are appropriated accordingly.
Now were we to adopt such a method in Brookline, the result would be that the $500 thousand wasted on a department of economic development would go instead to a Steps to Success program.
But we would need a management team that can pull this off. And we don’t have one. That’s why the best that they can come up with is a revenue increase through a Proposition 2.5 override.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ COST/BENEFIT ANALYSES!
This has been the mantra of our Town officials and leaders. Let’s make Brookline a laboratory for the many ideas floating in their minds, these amateurs with their busy day jobs but with a lot of time on their hands cooking the broth that is Brookline politics. Meanwhile our Town managers serve as their faithful concierges while being well (some might say over-) compensated. When is the last time we had a Town manager critical of our Town officials and leaders, prepared on principle to risk job security? I CAN’T HEAR YOU!