Tt post may 27 2016 b

Feb 29, 2016 - Toledo Blade editorial - Setting Toledo's priorities

Ms. Spang based her unsuccessful campaign for mayor last year on the issue of budget reform — not the sexiest matter, but a critical one.

She advocates Toledo’s adoption of a process called priority-based budgeting, which has been used in nearly 100 communities in the United States and Canada, including Cincinnati and Blue Ash in Ohio. Detroit is preparing to sign on.

The process is designed to allow city officials to set priorities in both operating and capital budgets on the basis of genuine community needs, the relative importance and quality of various public services, and the likely availability of long-term funding — not on the basis of political or special-interest pressure.

Good luck with that here.

It defines the city’s fiscal health as the foundation of budget forecasting and deliberations, labor negotiations, and evaluation of projects and programs.

Priority-based budgeting focuses on such questions as:

• What is city government required to do, and at what cost?

• Which services should be funded with tax dollars, and which with user fees? [more refuse fee, please]

• What does it do better, and more efficiently, than anyone else?

BTW, the Blade editorial did not contain the winking smiley face, in case anyone was wondering.

"What does city government do better, and more efficiently, than anyone else?"

Mmmm. It's the start of a long holiday weekend, therefore I'll ignore that question.

Ms. Spang says, the process enables city officials to make policy, define priorities, and assess results with hard data about every city program and its costs.

The city should upgrade its data processing system by purchasing a new abacus and/or slide rule.

Such [data-driven] decisions are likely to be sounder than those guided by ideological or political considerations, and are more likely to promote innovation in the delivery of public services.

The Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce opposes the proposed increase in the city income tax, primarily to pay for repair and reconstruction of city streets. At the same time, the chamber has offered to put up the $12,000 needed to hire the Colorado-based Center for Priority Based Budgeting to work with Toledo officials for the first year of the budget exercise here.

The full process would cost $47,500 — a small amount compared to the potential savings to the city and its taxpayers through the achievement of better budget policies and practices. Local businesses might find it a worthwhile investment to help defray that expense.

#toledo #politics