Issues
Government Reform for Greater Transparency and New Management Strategies
In August, this community experienced the first act of a longer drama about this county budget when the Lane County Commissioners received news of a $2 million budget shortfall. This shortfall had the commissioners making decisions between the poor, sick and homeless versus the safety of our community. At the last minute, the shortfall was revised down to $800,000.
One department, Public Safety, was cut by $500,000. Public safety is the most essential service of county government. Will criminals be running loose in the streets?
There are more cuts coming. Act Two of this drama will continue to unfold if state projections fall short, federal funding and other surprises force our commissioners and the administrator to redefine essential county services.
Our county administrator made a simple recommendation: reduce the “lapse” in many of the departments, including a core service of county government public safety. Lapse is the difference between the number of budgeted employees and the actual number of active employees on the job in Lane County. Vacant positions are currently kept on the books for budget purposes.
Some vacant but budgeted positions go unfilled for months, maybe even years, because it may be difficult to find the qualified candidate, compensation packages are insufficient or other personnel issues. These funds and positions are not subtracted even when they do not actually contribute to the stated purposes when the Budget Committee approves the department’s budget.
When the gap between budgeted employees and actual active employees is accumulated, those surplus funds are absorbed into the department and can be used for whatever the department director wants. It has similar advantages to an invisible reserve account for individual departments. This practice creates bloated budgets that camouflage the actual cost for essential services for county citizens.
This is the time to change this common practice. Departments should not hold open unfilled vacancies which can become slush funds and used for other purposes. The money should be returned to the general fund not as a carry-over resource for that department, but reduced from the department’s budget as unneeded and reallocated by the administrator. It is disingenuous to taxpayers in these challenging times to use what-you-see-is-not-what-you-get budgeting. It hides the real cost of essential services from taxpayers and elected officials.
Lane County government needs to earn back taxpayers’ trust. In Act Three, commissioners, budget committee members and administration should keep boots-on-the-ground, butts-in-the-jail and rocks-on-the-road with transparent budgeting. The good news: Act One of this drama, we have started the process early of a simplified, truthful county budgeting process that is long overdue.
Business, Not Government, Creates Jobs
How many times have you listened to a politician, whether on TV or in person, and heard him or her say that government will be creating thousands of jobs over the next x number of years? This is where government officials completely miss the point. Did you know that in my 10 years as Mayor of Springfield I never once said we are going to create jobs over the next x number of years?
“Why?” you may ask? Because that is not the role of government. The role of government should begin with the premise that “We want your business to come into our state/county/city. Now, what can we do to make you want to do business here?”
Finally, once we’ve attracted you, government’s role is to get the business its permits in an expedited manner.
My goal was to personally meet with the sitting consultant, or possibly an executive of the firm and invite him or her to do business in Springfield/Lane County. Then I would provide a roadmap for the decision makers showing them how we can quickly and efficiently get them their permits.
My thought was that if we provide this kind of service then jobs and investment will be created. In ten years while I was Mayor, over $1 billion of private sector investment came to Springfield, bringing with it thousands of new jobs.
Business, not government, creates jobs. Government, at its best, makes it easy for business to do so.
Article Written By Sid Leiken, Lane County Commissioner and former Mayor of Springfield
Goal: Quality Jobs and Higher Incomes for All Oregonians
The overriding goal of Healthy Communities Initiative is to increase and maintain high-wage jobs that support families and maintain strong communities. Key measures of success are per capita income, reduction in poverty, and statewide job stability.
Quality jobs and higher incomes result in lower poverty rates and lower tax rates for quality public services that in turn, support a healthy economy. This relationship is known as the “Circle of Prosperity.”
Unfortunately, Oregon has not been meetings its goal. Since 1997, Oregon’s per capita income has fallen off pace with the US average. Poverty rates are near the highest in the nation, and unemployment has been hovering above the national average in both good and bad economic times.
Vision: Industries Leading the Globe in Innovation and Sustainability
All businesses add to Oregon’s economic well being. Local businesses, those that sell their products and services exclusively or primarily to local customers, and who face little direct competition from out of state–add to the local quality of life, provide entrepreneurial opportunities for citizens, and can be the springboard to help launch traded sector clusters. Most jobs in a community are actually not in the traded sector, but in local service industries such as restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals and schools.
Oregon’s economy is driven by companies that ring up sales outside of Oregon, bringing in fresh dollars that support families, local businesses, and government services – essentially companies who export their products and services to other U.S. states and other countries around the globe. Because traded sector industries bring in the fresh dollars that allow these service industries to grow, we must pay special attention to them. These companies are particularly important because they create new wealth rather than just recirculation of the wealth that is already here.
The success of traded-sector industries is not random. These industries tend to “cluster” based on shared advantages such as natural resources, a specialized workforce, proximity to suppliers, and a policy environment conducive to the industry’s activities. While the future of these industries is in their own hands, it is critical that Oregon’s leaders understand our key traded-sector industries, and pursue initiatives that continue to provide them with a competitive advantage over other places.
Traded sector industries are both small and large. According to one study, about 88% of companies that export have fewer than 200 employees. By identifying our traded-sector industry clusters and paying special attention to their needs, Oregonians and policy-makers have a way of thinking about how to grow our economy and create more high-paying jobs.