If You Think We Have Problems...Go To Haiti

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subjects of the week:


A profound example of what corrupt governments can do to a nation’s citizens.
Revisiting Budgeting Issues

Based on several comments I have received, I apparently did not express myself clearly last week as I described what I perceive as problems with the procedures used by governments as they use the budget process to control money allocations and spending.

I feel that the concept of “zero based budgeting” in which every department must be sure to spend all of the monies allocated to it each year creates enormous amounts of waste across our nation each year as every federal, state, county, and municipal department and agency struggles to spend their funding. As the end of the budget year approaches they traditionally engage in a spending frenzy to bring their year end balance to zero. This spending is often on unnecessary replacement of items, long before their useful life has come. There is no motivation to manage the departmental expenditures below the budgeted amount through increasing productivity by working harder or smarter. In fact they are openly encouraged to “never” turn any budgeted funds back to the budgeting authority.

If a department head does return money at the end of the year, that department is then assuredly subsequently punished by the budgeting authority by a severe cut in the next year’s budget. This creates a “negative incentive to save” which costs taxpayers billions each year. Industry does not apply budgets in this foolish manner.

A commonly used approach in the world of industry where productivity and profits are key factors for success, is the concept of “GAIN SHARING”. In this approach, if a department is able to perform its assigned functions successfully, under a properly conceived budget, and is able to demonstrate that through adept management techniques, motivation of staff, and hard work performed by the department team they were able to SAVE the company money instead of merely spending it…they are then rewarded by allowing them to SHARE in the gain which was realized.

For example, assume a department is normally staffed with 20 people, but five positions are unfilled. If the remaining 15 people in the department perform the work which would have normally been performed by 20, they have increased their productivity and have generated a savings. If those 5 unfilled positions would have cost the company $30,000 each, or $150,000 total, then that amount was saved through the efforts of the 15 who did the work. A sharing plan would be designed to thus reward these employees. For instance, under a 50-50 plan, the company would take back $75,000, and the other $75,000 would be split among those 15 workers as a reward for their work. This creates meaningful motivation and recognition.

The budget would not be cut the subsequent year, as long as the workload remained the same. A gradual decline in the savings split over a three or four year period is not uncommon. This is much better than throwing the money away on unnecessary expenditures, and it creates healthy elements of improved morale, teamwork, and productivity enhancement.

Another element of waste in money management within the bureaucracies is the attaching of too many “strings” or restrictions on grants made to lower levels of government. These restrictions often force waste to occur, since the higher authority does not know all of the local conditions and opportunities for options which would create savings.

This is often the case when a grant is given for a new building, and disallows consideration of renovation and use of other vacant, less expensive buildings which would serve the need of the agency which is involved. A local example in my opinion was the grant funding for the million dollar JCARC building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Marianna. If they had instead been allowed to buy the old High School from the school board and renovate those facilities, the gymnasium, cafeteria, acreage, auditorium, and many rooms would have made a great facility for the JCARC mission. Because of the restrictions attached to the grant, consideration of this less expensive and more beneficial option could not even be considered. Bad money administration procedures from the granting agency thus created waste of taxpayer dollars.

To Build or Not To Build…

That tis the Question:

Our county “Crats” are still pushing as hard as they can to get a new castle built for them to play in. The issue of constructing a new County Administration Building was the primary topic during the Commission workshop session on Tuesday. A comparative analysis of new construction vs. renovation of the old Wal Mart facility was presented by representatives from Ajax Building Corp. and Donofro Associates. Surprisingly their study somehow demonstrated that there was little to gain by not building a shiny, new facility….ha! If you do not want public monies to be spent on this building you had better get involved privately and publically with these Commissioners. Otherwise, they stand a good chance of going ahead with the project…..even if the sky is falling in our world. I personally feel the prudent course of action is to do nothing in this uncertain time.

New Years Resolution- Always Say Something Nice!

My heart goes out to the long suffering people of Haiti. They were already living in terrible, agonizing poverty which was created by a long line of corrupt, inept political leaders and Dictators. They are a perfect example of what horrors bad leadership can create for the citizens of a nation.

No public infrastructure was ever built to create a comfortable condition for the people of Haiti. No water systems were built, thus 60% of the population does not have access to drinkable water. Women carry huge jugs of water on their heads for miles every day to provide water for their family. The lack of bathing and hygiene fosters horrible sickness and diseases.

I worked in Haiti as a consulting engineer for many years. I found the people to be hard working, warm, generous and gracious. There is no place to get into a line and get a free government check down there. “Entitlements” is a missing word in their dictionary. Yet their attitude is positive and cooperative. Crime is not a problem. It tears at your heart to see toddlers with their hair turned orange and their bellies swollen by malnutrition and starvation. They did nothing to deserve their condition.

My Haitian partners there were Rosemary and Thomas Price. Rosemary’s father had been a Doctor. Apparently when she was fifteen he made some public remarks relating to medical actions taken by ‘Papa Doc’ the long time Dictator of Haiti in the 50’s and 60’s. One night there was a knock at their door and the feared “Tontonmacouts, the cruel secret police of the Dictator came into their house, took her father, and she never saw or heard from him again.

I am gladdened to see our nation and the wonderful folks of Jackson County respond to the current crisis there. The work underway by our local civic clubs, churches, students, and individuals is heart warming. It is my hope that this international attention will lead to a rebuilding of that nation into something much better than they have ever realized. They deserve it.

● Attaboy! Commissioner Chuck Lockey gets a big “Attaboy” for his action at the last Commission meeting. The Planning Department Director, Mrs. Schairer, presented a list of proposed hefty fee increases for permits issued by her department. Mr. Lockey quickly squashed the effort by stating that in today’s economy with the financial stress on our county population, he could not support any fee increases at this time. In my opinion, he definitely “
Got It Right!”



Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.