Happy New Year!!!

Good evening (or morning/afternoon, depending on when you are reading this). Tuesday is the New Year's and I am excited. Every year, this is the day that we government junkies look forward to. A year of spending is almost behind us and a year of money to be spent awaits. We, of course, spend the money wisely and with caution because it is not ours. It is our customer's (residents) and we must protect it as much as possible.
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That is why I love the City I work for. We reduced our budget by 1% and I know, this does not seem like much but we are keeping a balanced budget and finding more non-tax revenue streams. Not only are we reducing the budget but we are also increasing service. We are adding a 4Th ambulance and staffing a brand new Fire Station. Not many other cities can say that they reduced budget and increased service. And no, my Public Administration friends, no transference took place. We just simply looked at what we were spending and decided we could do more with less. My department is important (and not because I am in the department... well, not entirely) because we bring in the non-tax revenue. Our non-tax revenue is the second largest source of revenue. In almost all cities, Sales tax is king and property tax is number two. Not so with us, property tax is number three. A non-tax revenue source is our number two.
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Not all government is wastefull. If more governments really examined where we are spending money, there would be little need for new taxes. This is a counter point to my friend's blog about the anti-tax society and the need for taxes. To be fair, he was not saying bring us more taxes, he was arguing society's view of taxes is wrong... but I digress. Anyway, the new fiscal year is among us and the point to this blog is really to say... HAPPY NEW (fiscal) YEAR!!!