I reviewed the Mayor’s transition team’s report and I have come up with some budget cutting recommendations that they left out.
If you scroll down to page 69 of the Mayor’s transition team’s report you will notice a brief description of the Energy Division of the Department of General Services:
“The fourth division within DGS is the Energy Division. Energy has a budget of $1.1 M and holds 15 full time positions. The Energy Division is responsible for implementing measures which are designed to achieve the following: Reduce energy cost and consumption; Displace fossil energy use; and Recover waste, both within municipal government facilities and the community.”
I would completely eliminate this division and thus save $1.1million. Every manager at every level of city bureaucracy should know how to conserve energy. There is no need for an entire department to be dedicated to this issue and issues somewhat related to it. In order to save more money the Mayor should issue a system-wide order for every manager in the city to reduce energy consumption at their physical location by at least 5% compared to the same time during the previous year. If this goal is not met then the manager should be fired or penalized in some way. If you have ever been in a city office you know the first thing you notice is how warm the office is during the winter and how almost every light is on. Our bureaucrats need to be responsible and not waste so much money on unnecessary energy consumption. They don’t need an outside department to manage them, it is just common sense!
The Department of General Services has a lot of fat that can be cut from it. The city owns way too many buildings and the DGS has to maintain these useless buildings. The buildings are valuable commodities on the open market that could bring in large amounts of revenue to Baltimore if they were sold. The city needs to start using space much more efficiently and it must start selling its underused property immediately.
How about if every single city worker takes a 5% pay cut? The savings an across the board pay cut would generate would be substantial. At the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra the orchestra members are taking a 16.6% pay cut! This is the reality of today’s economy. They are free to try and get higher paying jobs elsewhere or they could have fired some of their members and kept their salaries the same. Our bureaucrats need to understand that just because a person works for the local government does not mean they are exempt from these kind of fiscal realities. City workers need to be willing to sacrifice or find jobs elsewhere.
Filed in: Uncategorized.
Tags: Baltimore, budget, Bureaucracy
Adam is the most recognizable face of the recent resurgence in Reservoir Hill. He has appeared on many national and local radio shows, in several news publications, and at numerous events discussing his innovative urban redevelopment ideas and his unique lifestyle. Adam is a successful entrepreneur, community activist, and a local political guru who ran for city council in 2007. He is the founder and director of the TechBalt.com Buy a Block Project and BaltimoreHourly.com. His fearless local political commentary has rocked the local blog scene for most of this decade and he plans to take it to the next level in the next decade here on Charm City Current.
It’s not so much the city employees’ pay as it is the retirement system. That’s where costs are out of control. Take a look at those costs.
If I never thought you were a pompous blowhard before now, this piece sealed the deal. Every city worker should take a 5% paycut? I think you can add “writing” underneath “run for public office” to your list of things to never do again.
Reading this was a waste of time. I won’t click again.
Adam I believe your heart is in the right place, but please start using your brain. After reading a 250 page transition report THIS is what you have to offer? Did you even research what the Energy Division does? If you are going to pretend to be a journalist-type, at least make a phone call to learn the responsibilities and contributions of the office. Unless your intent is simply to get page views by printing reactionary, thoughtless tripe – I believed you could do better.
Of course some city unions need to accept the realities of wage and benefit freezes, even cuts when we’re facing a fiscal crisis of this magnitude. But once again, I think you’re tossing around the phrase “city workers” rather flippantly, without looking at the realities of that definition. A teacher’s assistant who makes $19K a year, is already BARELY above the federal poverty line (which for a household of 2 is currently $14,570). The average rent in Baltimore is already nearly 50% of the income of a worker making 20K a year, which IS in fact the salary of many workers on the city payroll (janitors, day care counselors,people who collect your trash, et al,.) I realize that perhaps you’re flying loose with the phrase for rhetorical effect, but all it really serves to do is alienate readers from your arguments. Perusing this blog you seem to have no little concern for the low-wage city workers who happen to be the ones MOST vulnerable to what will be the inevitable cuts in city services (closing of rec centers, fare hikes and eliminations of service on MTA, limitations on library hours – as libraries serve as de facto day care for many low-income workers). A 5% wage cut on this segment of the workforce, in tandem with say, an increase in light rail or bus fare, essentially creates a new class of welfare dependants.
Now, finding a constructive way to progressively tax well-endowed 501(c)(3)s like Johns Hopkins – who happens to own a third of the land in Baltimore – that is something to consider.
Every city employee takes a 5% tax cut, huh?
That’s fine as long as YOU and every other citizen in the state are taking one too. And as long as you can get BGE to lower rates by 5%, and let’s make sure there aren’t any parking or bus fare hikes coming to add to the misery.