Governor Scott’s Real Budget Problem - Budgets and Bureaucrats

By: Dr. E. Eugene Webb

Florida’s projected 2012 budget deficit is about $100 million more than forecast in December, according to Amy Baker the State Legislature’s chief economist. That would put the deficit at about 3.6 billion dollars. The deficit is being driven by Medicaid costs, education costs and pension funds. County and local governments also face steep budget deficits in 2012. Governor Scott, Senate President Haridopolos and House Speaker Cannon seem to be converging on a series of solutions to cut costs. Governor Scott wants to lower property taxes, reduce or eliminate the corporate income tax and get employee participation in pension plans. The question is how do you do all of that.

As I set at the Inaugural Prayer Breakfast on inauguration day I looked around the room at probably 2000 attendees a many of whom were state, county and municipal employees. Those bureaucrats you hear so much about. It dawned on me that the real budget problems of state, county and local government probably reside right here with this group. Leaders like Governor Scott, Senate President Haridopolos, Speaker Cannon, County Administrators and Mayors all face the same issue. A bureaucracy has a real strong tendency to protect itself. Here are three examples that point out the problem.

The first is pothole budgeting. In this scenario, to reduce the budget, the bureaucrats lay off the guy or guys that actually fix the pot hole. The lowest paid people on the totem pole and also, by the way, usually the position where the government in question gets the smallest dollar benefit for the actual staff reduction. They don’t, in most cases, lay off the supervisor or the manager, or the assistant director, or the director. When people complain about the pot holes, the supervisor does not go fix the pot hole, nor do any of the managers or directors, they just keep collecting their salaries and blame budget cuts for deteriorating streets. Nobody in that chain wants to get rid of the person below him because THEY would actually have to do some real work. Governor Scott has a whole state bureaucracy full of this problem as does every county and municipal government of any substantial size.

In the private sector they solve this problem by expanding the span of control. Keep the workers and reduce the number of supervisors, and managers along with their aids, assistants and secretaries. With today’s technology, supervisors can manage a lot more people than they could even five years ago. There is a real good chance productivity will go up along with morale.

This same idea works in education. Take a look at the number of administrators, directors, program planners and other non-teaching jobs in the state and local education system. Spend some serious time reducing all of that overhead and less time fighting with the teacher’s union. It is time to stop letting middle management drive the train and paint the teachers and the teacher’s union as the problem while keeping all of these really cushy management jobs in place.

The second scenario is ballistic budget cuts. In this situation, under pressure to reduce cost, the middle level bureaucracy picks a program to cut that they know has a serious, dedicated constituency or even better a fanatical public following and recommend the whole program as a budget cut. Examples: Catastrophic cuts or elimination of social programs, entitlements, libraries, pools, public safety functions, arts or sports programs. These cuts are specifically designed to be headline makers, create fear and raise the ire of the public so the Governor, County Administrator or Mayor becomes an instant target. Never mind the fact that the program is probably loaded with excess baggage in terms of mangers, administrators, program directors or whatever and could be streamlined and probably maintained. The objective of the ballistic budget cut is to create a public furor that redirects the budget effort in an entirely different direction; and the ultimate goal is to position this particular area so it is completely off the budget cut radar. It happens every budget cycle and midlevel bureaucrats have become experts at orchestrating this type of budget scenario. Beware of the ballistic budget cut.

Then there is the whole issue of actual verses ceremonial budget cutting. Or the cut and shuffle. In an actual budget cut, the position is eliminated and person is removed from the payroll - gone. In government we have ceremonial budget cutting. We cut the position, usually with great fanfare, but miraculously the person is quietly shuffled to a new job often times with less responsibility but oddly enough at the same salary. Granted nobody likes to terminate people. Besides, if we really start that you might be next. The cut and shuffle process has got to stop if state, county and local budgets are going to get balanced.

A suggestion to Governor Scott, President Haridopolos and Speaker Cannon, as you are working the budget issue get out of the office and the Chamber and walk around a little. Maybe even travel around the state to some of those out of the way state facilities that are crawling with midlevel bureaucrats. Look in all of those offices at all of those people sitting there and begin to ask some questions like what do these actually people do? Get some organizational charts with job descriptions. It should be a real eye opening experience. Same holds true for County Administrators and Mayors.

Don’t buy all of those nodding heads and smiling faces in the budget meetings as you talk on and on about cutting the budget, programmed budgeting, doing more with less and those other budget cut clichés. The smiling, nodding bureaucrats are likely working up their cut list of pothole patchers or the next ballistic budget cut so they can teach you who really runs the show.

Doc

Where are the Jobs?

From: Henry Boxlor:
Ok the election is over and all we heard from the candidates from senator to city council was “I am going to create more jobs”. Even the candidates for Attorney General were promising more jobs. I actually heard a candidate for Judge promise more jobs. How? Tell me HOW? Name one concrete thing any of these clowns can do that will actually create a job. See - you can’t. It was all a bunch of campaign hooey just to get your attention and your vote. If any of them could actually create a job it really wouldn’t matter who you voted for because they all were promising jobs. It’s pretty easy for the politicians to make jobs go away. Just raise taxes add a few more regulations with a bunch of fees and you pretty well can bet you just eliminated some jobs.

You might think that if you did just the opposite that would create jobs. Cut taxes, eliminate regulation etc. Not necessarily so. As you see in the election process, politicians are all flip floppers and business knows that. Smart business people don’t trust politicians much. So they wait. They wait to see what the trend is. That’s the problem. They are still waiting to figure out what to do about taxes, fees, health care etc. Elected officials need to get on track, set an agenda and execute it. All the bickering and worrying about the next election is just fueling more uncertainty. Until those who legislate get it right, those who invest and hire people are likely to keep sitting on their hands and their money.

Henry Boxlor

Note Gate or How Sink sinks Sink

Form : Henry Boxlor
I always knew the I-Phone was evil. Now we have the unadulterated on camera truth. This highly adept little piece of technology has blown a hole the size of a bulldozer in the election process. What next? An In The Voters Booth AP where the candidate or his/her aid can instruct you in the voting process. Steve Jobs and his bag of shiny cased gadgets are taking over. It is nothing short of a hideous attempt to totally usurp the political process. Wait a minute… was it an I-Phone or a Droid? Who cares? All of this technology is just screwing up everything.

What is really striking about all of this is that Alex Sink can’t figure out what to do when faced with a full frontal attack without some help from a cell phone packing soon to be college grad. What will she do when faced with a real immediate challenge as governor? Probably text one of the few people she didn’t fire at the bank.

I am not particularly enamored by either of these two political wannabes running for governor this cycle. I think they are both far from the best this state has to offer in terms of talent to get things moving and govern effectively. Given the nature of the political process it is not surprising talented people don’t step up.

When it comes to running a state too bad there’s not an AP for that. Oh wait there is that Steve Jobs guy over in the corner working on something…Politicians take note.

The Grey Wave- The Baby Boomers are Pissed Off

All of you 25 to 45 years olds better watch your back. The Grey Wave is rising like tsunami to take back the election this year. William E. Gibson, Orlando Sentinel reports “Pollsters and political analysts say that older voters — who have long preferred civility, stability and cooperation in Washington — are appalled by today's acrimonious political climate and increasingly convinced that the government cannot spend its way out of economic problems”. That’s what I hear; the old folks are pissed off. Those loud clicks you here when another attack ad comes on TV are the mute buttons being pushed.

They have had it with all of the political rhetoric, attack ads, party politics, war and failing economy. They are quietly talking in trailer parks, church meetings and at the coffee shop. They are going to vote, most likely Republican. Next time you see three or four of those golf carts clustered together, it’s the Grey Wave.

The batch of young voters that carried the last election may sit this one out, not much charisma here in Florida say between Sink and Scott. Crist, Meek, Rubio, no great reformer here, although Crist seems to stir some interest in those old hearts. Unless something very unique takes place in the next few weeks the baby boomers may well have it their way one more time. If you’re under 45 and want to have a voice in this election you better get your game on. Otherwise there are going to be a lot of smiling faces up at the club house on November 5th.

My Salmon and Me

The thought of a genetically engineered salmon is hard for me stomach. Remember all of the controversy about BGH (Bovine Growth Hormone). Bigger udders more milk. Well it started showing up in humans with some interesting side effects. Now they want to mess with my fish. The big concern seems to be a threat to the salmon population if one of these bad boys gets tossed into the sea and begins to procreate (spawn) with the normal salmon. What about me? If I eat this new fish will I become bigger, more fish like, develop an over powering urge to return to my natural home or maybe fail the mandatory drug test here at the Blog? What if these things mutate in the wild and grow to gargantuan size. Could we be threatened by an attack of the killer salmon attacking us with huge cedar bats?

And what about the trees? You know the cedar trees where we get the planks to cook the salmon. Will the bigger fish require bigger planks thereby threatening more deforestation? This is a big deal. It could lead to more global warming. Where the hell  is Al Gore? Does he eat salmon? The more I think about it the more upset I get.

I think I’ll just stick to my new five eyed Grouper sandwich, which resulted from the natural ingestion of the dispersant used in the BP oil spill.