There are advantages to undertaking progressive programmatic changes in periods of fiscal stress. Part of sustainability programming (SP) involves finding ways to accomplish more with less, and generally making operations more efficient. When revenues are at normal levels, increased efficiency can translate into expanded services. Otherwise, doing more with less means maintaining levels of service at lower costs. If reductions in force are going to be necessary from a purely fiscal standpoint anyway, SP opens a pathway to an RIF rationale that might be more palatable to the constituency as well as the staff, at least in the long run.
Fiscal policy reform is not necessarily a direct component of sustainability programming, but it could be an indirect one. For example, fiscal policy is sometimes linked to planning/zoning policy that tends to compromise community enhancement – including possibly SP practices – for the sake of expedient business development. This is of course a common issue for municipalities that rely heavily on location-specific sales taxes. Although substantive fiscal reform often exceeds the authority of municipal government, some steps can be taken. For example, SP can be an avenue for pursuing neighboring-community or other regional partnerships, which could include tax-sharing, inter-community service agreements that take advantage of efficiencies based on economies of scale (or some other competitive advantage), or other fiscal policy improvements.
Finally, sustainability programming allows communities to make progress in the face of adversity, which sends a strong positive message to constituents, potential investors (in both the private and public sectors), and city staff. Staff get a double morale boost, since a slowing economy can truncate the work load of some operations to the point of tedium. “Taking action” is the normal path to both psychologically and economically transitioning from a recessionary to a healthy economy. Government has taken the lead in this in the past, and progressive action can take place in local governments too.
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