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September 19, 2009

Anonymous The Commercial-News Sat Sep 19, 2009, 04:05 PM CDT

Many of the residents who agreed to serve on Danville Mayor Scott Eisenhauer’s community finance committee now know how difficult it can be to put together a budget for a governmental body.

A series of meetings — with more to come — have ended with no clear favorite among several strategies discussed to help reduce costs, maintain services and prevent — or at least minimize — increases passed along to taxpayers.

A few of the ideas discussed so far include:

n Pass along costs to employees, such as health insurance premiums. That strategy carries the risk of losing talented people and can be hindered by contracts negotiated in good faith.

n Cut services, thereby reducing the cost to the city. That idea could spark protests among residents, few of whom have a good understanding of how the system works.

n Raising fees and taxes to increase revenue. See above, plus the strategy runs the risk of causing businesses to set up shop in nearby communities with lower tax burdens.

n File bankruptcy to wipe the city’s debt slate clean and erase contracts with its employees. This idea tarnishes the city’s reputation, would alienate its employees and likely draw complaints from residents.

Those who run businesses already are painfully aware operations cannot continue as they did in the past, even as recently as five years ago. Those changes in the national economy continue to ripple through governmental operations.

Elected officials face no easy decisions. But the decisions must be made. The priority for officeholders at all levels of government is not to keep everyone happy or ensure their re-election, but to make government operate run as efficiently and as economically as possible.

That priority must be primary as officials make their decisions in the months ahead.

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