Sunday, Jan. 08, 2012

Study will help, but expenses matter too

The town of Garner has done something novel, at least among the local governments we have covered over the years. The town has calculated how much a house should be worth to pay its fair share of town services. That's such a useful exercise that we're surprised no one has done it before.

Not surprisingly, Garner figures it needs higher-end housing; we suspect any town would reach the same conclusion. But Garner now knows the exact dollar amount at which the town spends more on a house than it takes in.

Kudos to Garner leaders for authorizing a study that provides a wealth of data that should help the town council make informed policy decisions. But we'd also encourage Garner leaders to give as much thought to the other sides of the budget coin. The recently released study looks at town government largely in terms of revenue needed. Might we suggest the town also look at the expense side?

For example, how much does town government in Garner cost per person? How does that compare to other towns the size of Garner? How many police officers does the town have per capita, what is their average pay, and how do those numbers stack up against similar towns? Going further, for every dollar spent, how much goes into administration vs. police protection vs. street maintenance and so on? For every dollar spent, how much is the town paying in benefits to retirees? And as a percentage of town spending, are those benefits growing, shrinking or holding steady? In some cities in this country, retiree benefits as a percentage of spending are ballooning, forcing towns to cut basic services such as police and fire protection. Is Garner headed in that direction?

The good news is that all of those numbers should be readily available, no costly study needed.

Garner deserves credit for compiling data to help inform decision making. But every budget has two columns in the ledger, revenue and expenses. And Garner leaders should be just as mindful of one as the other.