The ‘restore’ narrative in local government needs to end

Governments love to compare current budgets to the year 2006-2007. It’s the budget year where property values and revenues were at record levels. However, we do know that government waste was at epic proportions.

That waste back then wasn’t on purpose, it was there because the economy was growing so fast that government was having a hard time reacting. So, government got sloppy and inefficient. We didn’t even understand that it had gotten that way until the Great Recession hit us. Then, once we felt the effects of the recession, we all understood very well what we had done to ourselves.

We have learned a lot over the last almost decade and a half. The recession was an important lesson for all of us, but especially government. Government was fat, bloated, employee heavy, overregulated and inefficient. While the recession was tragic for our community in general, it was a necessary reset for government. It was an important exercise that has been lost in the immediate years leading up to 2020.

Budget accountability in government has been pretty lost in COVID-19. Everyone understands that, except those actually in government. Candidates for election are even talking about it. It seems like those comfy in the elected official seats don’t get it. With their endless ability to tap into taxes and not having to cut one single job, the plight of the community and the leadership of the job have been lost upon them.

Our economy is having another reset of sorts, but government does not appear to be following suit. As a matter of fact, it’s pretending a reset isn’t necessary. Instead of opportunities for efficiencies, we are still hearing about “restoring” government to 2006-2007 levels.

This “restoring” argument is incredibly tone deaf when unemployment is high and some businesses are still closed due to COVID-19. That conversation really does lack compassion for what’s happening in the real world.

Elected government officials should immediately halt any reference to 2006-2007 and the thought of reinstating or reinstituting what we had back then. Instead, they should remind staff that those lessons from The Great Recession, need to be implemented today.

I watched a government meeting recently where an elected official actually suggested that a capital project list be prioritized. It was exactly what any voter would expect of their government, also it was exactly what any voter or business owner would do with their finances. It was a great idea and would have reaped efficiencies and firm policy development in light of the revenue drop in sales tax.

But, the majority of that local board scoffed at going through the exercise of prioritization. I am not sure if it was because it actually would take time and a thoughtful discussion or if it was because they actually had no intention of figuring out what to cut themselves so they didn’t have to take responsibility.

It was a disappointing discussion and it completely ceded all policy authority to staff. That elected official government board quickly nodded to the government executive and told him the expense list he proposed to cut looked fine, heaping praise when they actually made no policy analysis whatsoever on that list.

The administrations of these governments would immediately argue that history is important to monitor your spending. That is very much agreed. But cherry-picking the 2006-2007 data as the anchor for budgeting is purposely creating a false narrative for your own government-television-sponsored infomercial, and the public isn’t buying it.

This “restore” narrative needs to end. You don’t find it anywhere outside of government. Government needs to leave 2006-2007 behind. It’s time to have engaged discussions and have government look to the future to transform itself, and its policies, to match what is happening today.

Christine Robinson is executive director of the Argus Foundation and was on the Sarasota County Commission from 2010 to 2016. Contact her at christine@argusfoundation.org.