IS IT TRUE? PART 2: April 1, 2011 FISCAL REALITIES OF CONSOLIDATION

IS IT TRUE that this whole attempt at fiscal budgeting is the key to generating a consolidation plan that will really be convincing from an efficiency enhancement perspective?…that the simple arithmetic exercise of adding the two budgets together just made the budgeting prowess of the consolidation committee look simplistic?…that better efficiency is the only real reason to consolidate the City of Evansville with Vanderburgh County?…that identifying and communicating real and tangible savings that can be implemented for everyone’s benefit may just get the ball rolling uphill on consolidation?…that it really can’t get much lower on the acceptance scale than it is now?…that the Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters, the City of Evansville, and any other pro-consolidation entities need to either do the work of detailed financial analysis that leads to savings or hire someone that has the ability to do so if they are to realize their goal of consolidation?…that platitudes, blind acceptance of the concept, and silly bullet points that are easily refuted by scholarly work will not get this across the finish line?

IS IT TRUE that advancing a consolidation plan to referendum that has insufficient substance to have any probability of passing will set the effort back 10 or 20 years just like the soundly defeated VANDIGOV did in 1974?…that if consolidation can really be a benefit (and abstractly one would think that it could) then the powers that wannabe should put some defensible meat on this table of contents before the rah-rah cheerleading starts?

IS IT TRUE that the straw man has been summarily thrashed and that in the Battle for Consolidation that the pawns are all now vanquished?…that the conscripted volunteers (consolidation committee) have done their service to the community and have taken a hail of bullets for the cause?…that pawns never deserve the bullets but that they somehow always get sent into harm’s way first?… that the powers behind the consolidation committee or some new powers that wannabe will need to put some political capital on the table and take a chance with a plan of substance to capture any momentum?…that this is a somewhat complex task and will take a deep dive into the details of both the existing City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County budgets?…that a good place to start would be to identify a couple of financially successful cities and compare budgets on a % of total basis, compare employee counts on a number of service providers per 1,000 population basis, and only use comparisons of cities that we aspire to emulate?

IS IT TRUE that there is always plenty of waste and dysfunction in municipal budgets?…that finding waste and inefficiency is much easier than mustering the political will to expose these inefficiencies and wasteful habits?…that somehow inefficiencies and the people that benefit from them always seem to have sharp teeth when challenged?…that someone or some powers that wannabe will need to have the ability to take the punches that will come from real change and the willingness to punch back with substance and logic?…that maybe this is the start of something positive but that in the short run many sacred cows will be in the same position of the missionary when the two cannibals voted to eat him?

IS IT TRUE that the City County Observer has offered Rick Davis, Lloyd Winnecke, and Troy Tornatta the opportunity to publish a position paper on consolidation?…that in order received that we will publish their position papers without edit or bias and leave them up for at least a week?…that this is free advertising for you gentlemen so please accept our offer?