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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > November > 13
Friday, November 13, 2009
Ellen Belcher: County won’t do well if it stops investing
What a difference 10 years make.
This week Montgomery County Administrator Deborah Feldman and Commissioner Dan Foley met with this newspaper’s editorial board to talk about the county’s budget. Let’s just say there was not much cheer in the room.
Numbers can be deadly, but stay with me here. There’s telling stuff to come.
Next year, the county’s general fund budget will be $140 million; this year’s is almost $152 million, propped up by rainy-day money and reserves. That drop figures out to about 11 percent.
Obviously, this is a big loss to swallow, but step back in time: The county’s strategic plan from 1998 estimated that expenses this year would be $179 million — representing an annual average increase of 3 percent.
No one, back then, was thinking things could slide so hard, so persistently, and, in the big picture, so fast.
Feldman said that she thinks the worst is over and that the county has hit a financial plateau of sorts. But she’s the first to say that she’s been surprised before and that she can’t be sure.
As further evidence about the need for humility:
The 1998 strategic plan said the county’s investment income would be $30 million this year; it will be about $15.5 million.
The plan estimated that the local government fund — that’s money the state sends to counties and cities — would hit $19 million; it will be about $13 million.
Even back then, the prognosticators were worried about what was going to happen with the sales tax, the county’s largest revenue source, what with people and shopping centers sprawling. It was projected to be $80 million this year; the true number will be about $59.1 million.
You get the picture. Things are bad, even ugly.
Somehow county government and the community have been able to adapt, even to start transforming themselves in important ways.
Still, you can’t look at the trend lines and not be worried about the next 10 years. If this isn’t rock bottom, how much more creative can people get about cost-cutting without gutting things that citizens want and expect?
One initiative that the 1998 strategic plan was bullish on was an economic development program know as EDGE. The county committed to putting $5 million a year into a pot for grants designed to create jobs and retain businesses.
Communities apply for the money for things like site development, relocation costs and road improvements. Everyone’s requests are stacked up, and a diverse group decides who wins and who has to wait to try again another time.
Once a deal is complete, a portion of the new tax proceeds are shared among participating local governments.
The program dates back to the early 1990s, and, though it wasn’t universally embraced initially, it has a good reputation among government leaders across the county today. Next year the county will put just $1 million into EDGE, and, after that, it could end altogether.
Besides trying to encourage local governments not to outbid each other when wooing a prospect — using tax-sharing as both an incentive and a reward — the fund exists to make sure that Montgomery County can compete when a new business opportunity comes along.
Invariably, if the opportunity is a good one, the company is looking for some public assistance and, oftentimes, smaller communities don’t have enough resources on their own to make themselves competitive with another region or state.
EDGE has been written up in textbooks and recognized by planners and national journalists as a smart way to pool resources and get communities to think regionally. Cutting it back so much — in anticipation of letting it die — is a mistake.
It’s a statement that Montgomery County can only see as far as the sheriff’s jailhouse doors and the courthouse. Those are the places where it spends most of its money.
Even in a budget that’s declined so steeply, there has to be money to invest. When things start to turn around, the region has to be ready to act.
No community can cut its way to prosperity.
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