Hope comes to the budget process
By Michael Tams | 02/11/09 | 04:32 AM EDT | 0 Comments
This Obama fellow really drove home his message of hope. People are just so wishful and hopeful! Yet, I wonder if a little dose of reality is what we actually need.
Cook County Commissioners approved Todd Stroger's $3 billion budget. There's a catch:
Cook County Commissioners approved Todd Stroger's $3 billion budget. There's a catch:
But the plan banks on new federal revenue that's not yet guaranteed. It also leaves unresolved the county's large pension obligation and any plans to finance tens of millions of dollars in construction projects.
The tentative agreement was forged after the board's Finance Committee ultimately rejected Stroger's plan for a massive bond deal to cover some county spending.
So, really, it's pretty much like every other budget the County has had - unrealistic, bloated and without a snowball's chance in hell of being balanced. Wonderful.
Once upon a time, people and governments acted in the same fashion when it came to finances. In some areas, generally the smallest spheres of government, this is still true. I'm reminded of some founding-era wisdom that I'll leave you with, from Hamilton's Report on Public Credit (1790):
States, like individuals, who observe their engagements, are respected and trusted: while the reverse is the fate of those who pursue an opposite conduct.
TAGS: Budget, Cook County, Hamilton
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