Mr. Lynam on change

Greg Lynam's opinion letter in today's Standard Times is spot on in my opinion. Mr. Lynam says that,

"If combining departments permanently saves money, then it must be done. If sharing costs amongst neighboring communities results in permanent cost savings, then it must be done. The core costs of providing all services must be lowered permanently, preferably without any additional back-door tax increases."

He concludes that...
...

"The irony is that those who advocate "stay the course" in the hopes of protecting these departments are, in fact, guaranteeing their elimination.The trouble with staying the course is that more of the same begets more of the same."

By more of the same, Mr. Lynam means a slow whittling away of our ability to pay for our core services. The reason is that the rate of growth of our expenses exceeds the rate of growth of our revenues. As I posted here, we have little ability to change the rate of growth of our revenues. That leaves us to reduce the rate of growth of our expenses. Doing that will require new and innovative approaches to delivering services (regionalization, consolidation, and contracting out) and increased use of information technology. To that end, I and other members of the Select Board and Finance Committee will attend a conference tonight on regional solutions at Apponequet High School. The meeting is at 6 PM and open to the public.