Reduce government spending?

[rich_t]

You all know your local and state governments better than I do.

What are your recommendations on how they should reduce their spending?  For the sake of this topic leave public schools off the table.  That deserves it's own topic.

In my area one good place to start would be vehicles provided to state/local employees.

Let them buy their own cars just like most of us have to.

[djones520]

You all know your local and state governments better than I do.

What are your recommendations on how they should reduce their spending?  For the sake of this topic leave public schools off the table.  That deserves it's own topic.

In my area one good place to start would be vehicles provided to state/local employees.

Let them buy their own cars just like most of us have to.

I could agree that reducing the amount of government provided vehichles could help, but I doubt many are purchased that aren't really needed.  Especially for a lot of those jobs that require putting a few hundred miles on the car a day.  The government should either provide the vehichle or a stipend to cover all the associated costs, including wear and tear.

I'm technically a resident of Manistee County, and I think they spend way to much on their police force there.  Not knocking the police at all, but it's a pretty rural country, that has one city thats kind of quickly becoming a ghost town.  Yet there is the County Sherriff, Indian Police from a sizable reservation in the county, as well as a good sized city Police Department.  Now Manistee city does have an unfortunate criminal elemnt, but nothing that they need their own police force for.  They could easily axe it, give some of those funds to help expand the Sherrifs department, and be solid.

[Carl]

You all know your local and state governments better than I do.

What are your recommendations on how they should reduce their spending?  For the sake of this topic leave public schools off the table.  That deserves it's own topic.

In my area one good place to start would be vehicles provided to state/local employees.

Let them buy their own cars just like most of us have to.

The first and easiest here I think would be eliminate duplication of services.
Right now there is a NYS police barracks a mile away and a county sheriffs one 4 miles away on the same road.
Every village has its own to boot.

There is a State highway department on the end of the road but the county plows it and a town truck drives by to plow a town road that runs between the county one and the state one to the south.

That would entail taking on the public employee unions that hold the state hostage.
We were talking at work the other day that between public assistance voters and public employees the overall voting block that have government as their resource is out of proportion to that which funds it...

Public employee union membership in New York has reached an all-time high of more than 1 million. One out of every eight New York workers is a unionized government employee; the ratio averages one out of 19 in the rest of the country.

http://www.empirecenter.org/pb/2006/09/government_work.cfm

That doesn`t include education figures either I believe.
No one wants to throw someone out of a job but no matter how you look at it that is where it starts as the costs associated (state pension funding) are breaking local governments.

[thundley4]

That doesn`t include education figures either I believe.
No one wants to throw someone out of a job but no matter how you look at it that is where it starts as the costs associated (state pension funding) are breaking local governments.

If you look at any state that is in financial trouble or close to it, you'll find that employee pensions are one of the biggest problems facing those states.

[rich_t]

Duplication of services is a good point Carl.

[NHSparky]

At the local level, we already voted overwhelmingly (71 percent) for a spending/tax hike limit.  That was in 2008.  Sadly, at the state level, we're still run by Democrats who think that the only "real" solution is to implement a sales and income tax to cover their prolific spending.

[Eupher]

Shitcan public schools and go strictly charter/parochial.

That monstrous support system goes with it too; the bureaucrats and the highly paid "superintendents" who don't know how to tell Mommy to **** off, that little Johnny is gonna walk a half mile to school.

[LC EFA]

Want to reduce government spending ?

Reduce government.

Nearly every government is overstuffed with useless eaters and slack ass drones that are good for precisely squat.

Many tasks and roles are duplicated or triplicated.

I'm a fan of privatizing nearly every service they presently provide and moving towards a user-pays system.

[Eupher]

Want to reduce government spending ?

Reduce government.

Nearly every government is overstuffed with useless eaters and slack ass drones that are good for precisely squat.

Many tasks and roles are duplicated or triplicated.

I'm a fan of privatizing nearly every service they presently provide and moving towards a user-pays system.

   Spot on. But the congresscritters can't do that because it makes them look less than valuable. And we can't have that either.

If the European model is any kind of reference, we're still quite a ways from reaching critical mass, though. With the Brits implementing a VAT on food and worshiping all things Muslim, we've got a long way to go.

With Lord Zero in the WH, however, I think we're making great strides in that direction.

[DumbAss Tanker]

The thing that's really kicking their ass is their defined-benefit retirement programs, some of which are just as larded-up as the UAW's, which was breaking the back of the Big Three.  The same thing is breaking the back of New Jersey and California now, but also many mid-sized to large municipalities.  Once they vest, it's only fixable with cash buy-downs, buy-outs, or bankruptcy, but if they don't go with one of those, the paying Government gets its ass kicked financially more and more every year.

[thundley4]

The thing that's really kicking their ass is their defined-benefit retirement programs, some of which are just as larded-up as the UAW's, which was breaking the back of the Big Three.  The same thing is breaking the back of New Jersey and California now, but also many mid-sized to large municipalities.  Once they vest, it's only fixable with cash buy-downs, buy-outs, or bankruptcy, but if they don't go with one of those, the paying Government gets its ass kicked financially more and more every year.

I think Illinois is worse shape with regards to pensions.

[The Village Idiot]

You all know your local and state governments better than I do.

What are your recommendations on how they should reduce their spending?  For the sake of this topic leave public schools off the table.  That deserves it's own topic.

Oh, where to start. First they can stop printing and mailing their own "newspaper" each month telling us about all the great and wonderful things they do. (Irving, TX)