It’s refreshing to hear one of our elected officials take a stand against “business as usual” and advocate taking a look at the way we do business. Piali De’s comments [as reported in the Jan. 15 Press] reminded me of a quote from a very successful corporate CEO who, having been successful in both good and bad times, said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste. Now is a good time to kill the sacred cows.” After thinking about that quote, and the current condition our country, state and local governments are in, I thought, how appropriate.
We often know what needs to be done long before we get around to doing it, whether it involves people or policy issues. When times are good, we tend to let things ride to avoid change and keep the peace. Tough times often force these issues, giving us the opportunity to change “sacred cow” policies and procedures that would be difficult to do otherwise. The town has this opportunity before it. Now is a good time to look closely at our “sacred cows” and rethink previous approaches and underlying assumptions about our budget. It is an opportunity to “correct” past excesses, bad decisions or incorrect assumptions and consider change. Even if the town can avoid a budget reduction by using “reserves” or other short-term solutions, it should seriously consider using this opportunity to make the hard choices necessary to reduce the budget.
“Gimmicks” that give the illusion of reducing the budget only support maintaining the status quo. The state’s, and the town’s, economy will not magically improve next year and no one knows what the next couple of years will bring. By acting now the town can avoid making perhaps harder choices in the future. Even if the economy improves and revenue and federal and state aid stabilize, a budget cut now will help get the town back to some “reality” in the budgets we are now encumbered with.
Joseph Sudol
Lancaster County Road
