A year of difficult changes
From just a couple months out, you can see that 2009 is going to be a year of changes. Not all of them are going to be pleasant.
We are starting to see the impact of recessionary times and the financial meltdown hit closer to home. A lot of decisions are being made these days with the state of one’s retirement plan in mind. University trustees heard a report last week that they were no different. The school’s $2.5 billion endowment has dropped by $300 million or 13 percent. Tuition will go up this year.
The larger picture in state finances is equally bleak. Revenues are down more than $300 million over what was projected and are not expected to pick up soon. Speculation of the budget gap ranges from $2-3 billion. Sales taxes are likely to come in low this year as well. The state’s situation has a trickle-down effect.
This week, the Chapel Hill Town Council got a look at what a five percent reduction would do. Carrboro, Hillsborough and county governments will be faced with the same. School projects in Orange and Chatham counties have been delayed or approved but unfunded.
The situation presents an enormous challenge at all levels of local government. Each department must be creative and frugal.
Drafting a budget is a painstaking and sometimes painfully slow process. Each year, we’re certain, the process evolves with a great deal of attentiveness on the part of town officers and elected officials. The year ahead calls for an especially high level of engagement, first to do what can be done to maintain services and proceed with critical projects, and second to explain carefully the options available and encourage a public dialog.
The budget axe is going to fall — not a single jurisdiction in this newspaper’s readership will be spared a share of the pain.
Plans shaping up on the statewide level are worrisome, with some calling for cuts to Medicaid along with steep cuts to other services being contemplated.
Upon her election earlier this month, state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird told us that she expects to spend the better part of the rest of her legislative career defending programs aimed at the most vulnerable in our society from getting cut too deeply.
There still seems to be almost no stomach in Raleigh for any revenue increases, be they tax hikes or closing major loopholes. The oft-stated cause of this timidity is fear that voting for a tax hike might open one up to negative advertising. Judging from the ads in the last election, no politician is going to be spared the charge no matter what they do.
Cutbacks at the state level make what happens at the town halls and county courthouses in Pittsboro, Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro even more critical. Very shortly, we’ll get to the phase in the budget cycle when nonprofit and social service agencies present their annual requests for funding from local governments.
The temptation will be to be frugal and possibly look for savings there as well. Many of those agencies, however, are on the front lines of the aforementioned economic meltdown. They are the ones most directly meeting the needs of individuals and families who are struggling. With charitable giving down, many of these organizations are also struggling.
As we begin the conversation about where to cut and what to bolster, what we want and what we need from government, let us first and foremost remember the lifelines. There are many things that can wait another year. Our neighbors in need are not among them.