GOVERNMENT BUDGETING: OBSTACLE OR OPPORTUNITY?

posted by Michael Chihak

In the pile of state budget trimmings in Arizona this spring were $93 million in cuts and pass-along costs to the counties.

They came despite the counties’ consistent objections, most of which involved pleas that it would be the fourth straight year of cuts in state-controlled funding to the 15 counties.

Now the counties are working to put together their budgets for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, leading to resurrection of what is a predictable and yet mysterious political discussion.

The predictable part of the discussion is conservatives saying government must be smaller, and it’s their job to impose fiscal restraint, and liberals saying that budget cutting alone isn’t a good way to make government smaller, and we should tax the rich more.

The mysterious part of the discussion is why there isn’t yet any serious talk of ways to reform the system from top to bottom – including tax reform and a realistic look at what is and is not needed in government structure and services.

The opportunity for true reform is here, with everything from the job market, the housing industry and even the overall economy in need of reinvention.

Yet adherence to party line ideology on both sides is the obstacle to making headway for reforms that will require everyone to let go a bit of their now entrenched positions in favor of compromise that makes the system better.

That's why in the rhetoric over budgeting, it's disheartening to hear the predictable comments on both sides. That continues the obstacles and problems we have.

A company that employed me for many years had as part of its philosophy and culture that there were no problems, only opportunities.

Is that how our political leaders with their predictable sound bites see current circumstances? Or do they see the opportunities in those circumstances?