BY RUSSELL TURNER
CAKE FROSTING AND BUDGETS
Within a very short period of time all of our legislative departments will be in session making laws and regulations that all of us have to live with. In addition to making laws and regulations, our legislators are required to spend the money that we taxpayers contribute to our state and federal government. One phrase that should raise suspicions for all of us is when some politician starts making promises that certain departments will be fully funded. While that statement sounds good to the people in the departments who will benefit from any increased funding, the taxpayers need to start asking some hard questions.
First we need to ask a very simple question. Where does the figure that they are using come from? Who is it that determines what fully funded is? In the real world a good businessman must have the ability to set priorities and use his available money to cover his needs the best way possible. I have noticed that the ability to budget money is often deficient in many of the political class. On the federal level our government politicians, in their attempt to fully fund their pet projects, have simply pulled out their credit cards and indebted our nation to the tune of 16 trillion dollars. On the state level here in Oklahoma we have a balanced budget amendment which is supposed to prevent indebtedness and poor financial practices. The ability to manage the available tax dollars is essential for the well being of the state and the public at large. Spreading money around is a lot like smearing icing on a cake. All of us like to get a piece of cake with thick frosting, but it doesn’t always happen that way. I have seen my mother take a small amount of frosting and cover a pretty big cake; if only our elected officials could do as well with tax money.
I have had to set budgets in the past; most often the various departments will submit a list of their needs for the next fiscal year. The people setting the budget have to review all of the requests and set priorities; from experience I know it is a thankless job and you probably will not be making any new friends in the process. When you have a finite supply of money, the citizens need to be informed that whenever more money is granted to one department, that amount will have to be taken away from some other department. Most of the time all of this talk about fully funding certain departments is nothing more than a political ploy to gain votes in the next election cycle. We citizens need to understand that government cannot be everything for everyone. The decisions to fund, or not to fund, should be based upon the knowledge that we only have so much to spread around.
CAKE FROSTING AND BUDGETS
Within a very short period of time all of our legislative departments will be in session making laws and regulations that all of us have to live with. In addition to making laws and regulations, our legislators are required to spend the money that we taxpayers contribute to our state and federal government. One phrase that should raise suspicions for all of us is when some politician starts making promises that certain departments will be fully funded. While that statement sounds good to the people in the departments who will benefit from any increased funding, the taxpayers need to start asking some hard questions.
First we need to ask a very simple question. Where does the figure that they are using come from? Who is it that determines what fully funded is? In the real world a good businessman must have the ability to set priorities and use his available money to cover his needs the best way possible. I have noticed that the ability to budget money is often deficient in many of the political class. On the federal level our government politicians, in their attempt to fully fund their pet projects, have simply pulled out their credit cards and indebted our nation to the tune of 16 trillion dollars. On the state level here in Oklahoma we have a balanced budget amendment which is supposed to prevent indebtedness and poor financial practices. The ability to manage the available tax dollars is essential for the well being of the state and the public at large. Spreading money around is a lot like smearing icing on a cake. All of us like to get a piece of cake with thick frosting, but it doesn’t always happen that way. I have seen my mother take a small amount of frosting and cover a pretty big cake; if only our elected officials could do as well with tax money.
I have had to set budgets in the past; most often the various departments will submit a list of their needs for the next fiscal year. The people setting the budget have to review all of the requests and set priorities; from experience I know it is a thankless job and you probably will not be making any new friends in the process. When you have a finite supply of money, the citizens need to be informed that whenever more money is granted to one department, that amount will have to be taken away from some other department. Most of the time all of this talk about fully funding certain departments is nothing more than a political ploy to gain votes in the next election cycle. We citizens need to understand that government cannot be everything for everyone. The decisions to fund, or not to fund, should be based upon the knowledge that we only have so much to spread around.
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