Monday, September 8, 2008

Great Moments in Governmental Priorities

This article shoots down the rumors that the Gwinnett County, Georgia government is planning layoffs, but it does note that, like most governmental bodies, times are tough:
The county has taken steps in recent months to address slumping revenues and rising expenditures.

In addition to the tax commissioner’s four-day week and the hiring freeze, the county has asked public safety workers to limit their use of gas and police have been trying to handle more routine calls by phone instead of dispatching an officer to each one.

More belt-tightening could come with the 2009 budget. Department leaders have been asked to submit lean budgets as the county expects to spend $26 million of its general fund reserve by the end of this year.
Thank goodness they found $59 million for a baseball stadium, though, because it would be a travesty if a large corporation like the Atlanta Braves had to pay for the facilities in which they train their employees.

3 comments:

tHeMARksMiTh said...

I saw this and thought it was funny how teams somehow get the tax payers to pay for all of it. In return, they get high ticket prices, high merchandise prices, and usually a pretty sucky team. Fair trade at its finest.

Anonymous said...

Sabernomics has a ton of the stadium stuff, very shady reports recently about one of the county officials having real estate right across from the new stadium site. The whole thing is local government at its worst.

Anonymous said...

Are you suggesting that money is somehow fungible?