Maybe This Year for Zero-Based Budgeting?

You gotta pity poor Martin O'Malley and the Two Mikes in Annapolis. Really, you do.

Now that tax increases seem to be off the table, there's some real budget cutting that's got to happen. Call out the usual suspects: we're going to have to cut education, public safety, health services, you name it. It's the typical scare tactics they trot out every time.

Not this year, they won't! It won't fly.

The Governor is already saying that there is likely going to have to be layoffs of state workers. That's a real kick in the teeth for the folks that put him there, just like the furloughs were. Now, there are going to have to be job cuts, too.

Well, there are a couple of things to consider in trying to fix the budget mess. It's not an exhaustive list, by any means, but it's a couple of steps in the right direction.

1) There are phantom employees budgeted in a number of State agencies. A phantom is a worker whose salary is in the budget, but there is no employee doing any work. Let's say that our agency, the Bureau of Obfuscation, budgets 20 employees for the year, but we only really keep 18 filled. With 2 unfilled positions now we have money that *would* go toward salary and benefits if there were employees in those positions.

If each of the spots would pay $30,000, then that's $60,000 in "extra" money we can move around because we know we're not going to fill them in the first place. We don't have to put $37,000 in the budget for project X that we really want because we can take money from "salaries" and move it to X, and we'll still have $23,000 left over! And our Bureau isn't the only one in State government that has them.

Sure, but now the situation is dire enough that, even after you lay off all the phantoms, there will still be real people losing their jobs and benefits.

2) However, there's something even more galling, and both State and Federal departments do this. Our Bureau of Obfuscation got a $10 million appropriation for this year. We spent our money fairly wisely, and we still have our two phantoms, and now our total spending was $9 million. Uh oh!

We need to spend the other $1 mil and do it quickly, before the end of the fiscal year! Why? Because if we don't, those who make the appropriations process will see that we didn't spend all of our money, and they'll think we won't need $10 million or more for next year. I've mentioned this to friends of mine who actually are government employees, and they vouch for the fact it happens all the time.

Now, we go into panic mode and start ordering anything and everything we can. We stack our office supplies room to the ceiling with boxes of paper; grosses of pens, pencils, and highlighters; millions of binder and paper clips and other things. But we've only spent $100,000. What to do? What to do?

Well, we have to go on a spending spree! That office furniture we bought only two years ago is looking kinda rough. Suzie Q down the hall complained that the fabric was frayed on her arm rest. Get her a new ergonomic one, right away! The carpet in our posh lobby from last year has a tiny worn spot in it already, and the copiers we bought three years ago have been worked to death. Or have they? But, if we replace the carpet and buy two new copiers for each floor, we might get close to spending the entire $1 mil left in the budget. We'll get our appropriation for next year, and we can do it all over again!

Oversimplified? Yeah, admittedly. But a lot closer than you'd like to believe.

There's an alternative, though. Sooner or later, the State is going to have to look at it. Could this be the year? Under this Governor?

It's called zero-based budgeting. Instead of looking at what your budget was last year, you start at zero. How much are we going to need for real employees? Add it in. How much are we going to need for office supplies? Add that in. What's our phone bill? Add it in. And so forth.

Now, how much do we need for the programs we actually administer? What are the historic costs we've incurred in administering this program, not what number have we decided to pull out of the air because it sounds cool? Are there inefficiencies we can correct to save even more money?

Do we let our lights burn all night instead of shutting them off when nobody's in the building? Is our HVAC system set so that it doesn't provide the heat or AC to keep the mice nice and comfy at night, but is good for working hours? Do we shut our computers off at night, keeping only the essential servers going?

OK, you want to add $1.5 million in the XYZ program. What does the XYZ program do? How much did we spend last year? Why? How effective was the program, how many people did it help? How will the new money be spent? What is your budget for XYZ? Basically, you justify your expenditure proposal. It could happen.

Let's say your 12 year-old child comes to you and says, "Mom, when we go shopping today, would you give me $20.00?" Your first reaction isn't going to be, "sure, honey, here it is. Enjoy. Buh-bye."

At least that's not what MY mother would have said. (If you would say it, could you adopt me, please???)

No, you're going to ask why the child needs the $20.00, what she intends to buy with it, why she needs the item, and you'll probably have a whole host of other questions.

In this period of budget crisis, and even in good times, we should do no less with government budgets.

What can we do about it? Contact your legislators, both your Senator and your Delegate(s), and let them know you want a different approach to budgeting! You can find out who your folks are by going to the General Assembly website at: http://mlis.state.md.us/ and put your address in the "Find Your Legislator" box.

And, while you're at it, why not drop Gov. O'Malley a little note asking the same thing? http://www.gov.state.md.us/mail/

UH OH! Guess What Happens Wednesday?

The Maryland General Assembly opens its 90-day Session in Annapolis on Wednesday, January 14, 2009. Although the State is going through some tough economic times right now, various legislative leaders seem to indicate that tax hikes are not likely, but that budget cuts are. (Whew!)

I'm already looking at the synopses of bills that have been pre-filed, and I've got a couple of them that have me scratching my head. Once I see the synopsis, if I have other questions, I'll go into the text of the bill itself.

SJR 1, for example, would have Maryland finally ratify the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution, which provides for the direct election of US Senators. It was ratified on April 8, 1913. (And we need to do this, why?) http://mlis.state.md.us/2009rs/bills/sj/sj0001f.pdf

What will they get into this year? I don't know, but stay tuned! I'll try to report on it as best I can. And I welcome comments!

Just remember, if the 2007 Special Session didn't prove the following quote, nothing will:

"No man's life, liberty or property is safe while the Legislature is in session."

Now, I digress. Do you know who said that? The answer may surprise you!

A lot of people think that it was either Mark Twain or even H. L. Mencken that came up with the saying. In doing research on the net, I wasn't quite satisfied, so I looked for as many references as I could find, and one source seems to have done exhaustive work on it.

The American Dialect Society has a number of citations as to where the quote was first found, and it determined that it was neither Twain, nor Mencken, nor even Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), a journalist and short-story writer during his lifetime.

The answer? Judge Gideon Tucker. Who? He ruled in favor of a widow in a negligence suit [1 Tucker 248 (NY Surr 1866)] because her attorney did not advise her on the most current law dealing with settling her husband's estate. That's when he uttered the quote.

It seems that Twain somehow got hold of the statement, used it, and Noah Webster apparently credited Twain with it rather than the judge.

If you'd like the citation, drop me an email and I'll send it to you.

Anyway, Wednesday's going to be the first day of many of fun. And, think of it! We'll soon have Governor O'Malley delivering the State of the State Message!

A Poll on The Economy, Just for Fun

Just how confident are you that President-Elect Obama's economic team will be able to do much of anything with the economy in the next 12 months? Will the Wall Street banker types and the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank be able to start fixing a badly-broken system in that time?

I thought I'd put up a poll to see what you all had to say about it. You'll see it down on the sidebar, so please take a moment and cast your vote. When it's done, I'll post the results and we can discuss them. I wanted to see if there was a market for occasional polls on this site, because they might be fun to do.

Meanwhile, this post is open for your thoughts about the economy in the next year and what we think or hope will happen with it.

I will admit I haven't taken a real close look at the PE's economic plan yet, especially since he just announced it the other day. What the mainstream media boils it down to and what was actually said can often turn out to be two different things. I prefer going to as close to the source as I can for something like that.

Has anybody looked at your 401(K) or other retirement plans yet? I'll admit, I'm scared to open mine, especially since the company I worked for had lousy choices in the first place. I know that a friend of mine has looked at his 403(B) since the meltdown, and he's down to around $20,000 from $35,000 this past summer.

How's that bailout working out for US?

It appears that our new President is going to have a lot of Bill Clinton's retreads on his team. That could be good or bad news, because, on balance, the Clinton years weren't all that bad economically.

Will that be enough to bring consumer confidence up so that people will start spending again? Will businesses start expanding again? Will the jobless rates go down, even slightly?

Will the opinion-makers in the press and media be able to convince Joe the Sixpack that everything's far rosier than it is? (Remember Josef Goebbels.)

OK, now I'm getting farklempt. I've put a lot of questions out there! Discuss.