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Saturday, February 4, 2012
My Turn: In budget season, some tips for towns | Concord Monitor
This article contains several recommendations for municipalities during the budget season. Unfortunately most towns only have budget enough for one recommendation. With my experience in heavy construction, I was once asked to work with the town road agent to see if there were any noticable inefficiencies in his budget. Knowing my interference was probably not going to be welcomed I met on his terms at 6:00am with coffees in hand. What I found was a model of efficiency and an ability to stretch a budget second to few in the state. Municipal budgets are often reduced by looking at the largest line items and reducing them incrimentally based upon a set percentage in lieu of common sense. Municipal infrastructure budgets are often a primary target. I tip my hat to the many fine municipal road agents, foremen and public works staff that continue to do wonders with limited budgets in spite of the recent attacks on retirement and health care benefits.
This article contains several recommendations for municipalities during the budget season. Unfortunately most towns only have budget enough for one recommendation. With my experience in heavy construction, I was once asked to work with the town road agent to see if there were any noticable inefficiencies in his budget. Knowing my interference was probably not going to be welcomed I met on his terms at 6:00am with coffees in hand. What I found was a model of efficiency and an ability to stretch a budget second to few in the state. Municipal budgets are often reduced by looking at the largest line items and reducing them incrimentally based upon a set percentage in lieu of common sense. Municipal infrastructure budgets are often a primary target. I tip my hat to the many fine municipal road agents, foremen and public works staff that continue to do wonders with limited budgets in spite of the recent attacks on retirement and health care benefits.
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