On Spending: The Strategic Pause

Council has discussed publicly the real need to take a breath during the current legislative session on how we are spending tax dollars, as the Statehouse is looking at significant changes to how we raise revenue for those public goods.

The idea of a “strategic pause” isn’t anything new. Whether borrowed from the “grand strategy” books found in leadership and military studies, gamers and role-players, or project planning, making a strategic pause in moments of chaos is not a weakness but a strength.

We have no idea of the full impact of the state legislatures desire to noodle with tax policy. It appears we are moving closer to a new reality than absolute destruction, but until then we do need to be mindful about our local spending.

While certainly our departments are rightly living under the budget that was settled before my term, and are doing the good work of appropriating, de-obligating, and reallocating resources – we are at the point where we need to take that strategic pause to asses and forecast correctly this artificial austerity, which is being imposed in a partisan way. We have heard everything from the state putting caps on our rates to reducing us to 2021 rates to eliminating both property and income taxes.

With so much volatility, the focus needs to stay with the core duties of government - salary for those that deliver services - expenses for the resources we need to deliver public goods - and capital projects for maintenance and repair. Let’s prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and take the strategic pause to get our core services through.