3 years, 5 months ago
When a City/Town/County faces tough financial time, in what order should the services they provide be cut?
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M$1 Answer
Before cutting services, the agency should examine other areas for savings. For example, travel budgets should be slashed, training budgets can be scaled back, and unfilled but budgeted FTE's (i.e. personnel) should be eliminated from the budget.
After these savings have been realized, the agency needs to examine the services it provides and categorize them as either statutorily mandated or optional.
If providing the service is mandated by law, it cannot be cut. But if it is optional, then the optional services need to be prioritized based on cost and effectiveness. For example, it would be unwise to eliminate an optional service that was costly, but provided even greater cost savings.
As a general rule of thumb, public safety should be the last service to be cut. Also, efforts should be taken to minimize the impact cuts have on customer service.
After these savings have been realized, the agency needs to examine the services it provides and categorize them as either statutorily mandated or optional.
If providing the service is mandated by law, it cannot be cut. But if it is optional, then the optional services need to be prioritized based on cost and effectiveness. For example, it would be unwise to eliminate an optional service that was costly, but provided even greater cost savings.
As a general rule of thumb, public safety should be the last service to be cut. Also, efforts should be taken to minimize the impact cuts have on customer service.
source(s):
Government experience.
Government experience.
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