If you think 2009 was a bad budget year, wait until you see what 2010 has in store for you. In early 2009 I was encouraging everyone to fill their vacancies because the bottom was going to drop out of the budget. That happened for sure!
A current estimate I saw for states is a $369B budget shortfall between now and 2012. Those numbers will not be made up anytime soon. What is worse for 2010 is that there is no federal stimulus funds in sight to bail out state's economic woes. There were some one time savings taken last year that cannot be repeated again. Expect more deferred maintenance on critical infrastructure and slower implementation of technology solutions.
Governing Magazine had an article on The Stress Mess that this might put government workers in. Even in the good times emergency management programs are not resourced for worst case events. I can see many one person shops closing up and the work being assigned to others in the workforce as an additional duty. I'd be interested in hearing from folks who are taking budget cuts and how you are adjusting your programs. Leave a comment!
One mistake I made back in the dot.com downturn was eliminating our Emergency Management Training Program. After all that is the solution recommended right? Don't pick at all the programs, cut out distinct pieces. In retrospect this was a mistake to make. When things did pick up it is too hard to start over from scratch if you have not been sustaining the program all along. My recommendation is to just "do less with less." Keep all the program elements, but cut back on your activities.
In the short term I just don't see any good budget news to share.
Top
A current estimate I saw for states is a $369B budget shortfall between now and 2012. Those numbers will not be made up anytime soon. What is worse for 2010 is that there is no federal stimulus funds in sight to bail out state's economic woes. There were some one time savings taken last year that cannot be repeated again. Expect more deferred maintenance on critical infrastructure and slower implementation of technology solutions.
Governing Magazine had an article on The Stress Mess that this might put government workers in. Even in the good times emergency management programs are not resourced for worst case events. I can see many one person shops closing up and the work being assigned to others in the workforce as an additional duty. I'd be interested in hearing from folks who are taking budget cuts and how you are adjusting your programs. Leave a comment!
One mistake I made back in the dot.com downturn was eliminating our Emergency Management Training Program. After all that is the solution recommended right? Don't pick at all the programs, cut out distinct pieces. In retrospect this was a mistake to make. When things did pick up it is too hard to start over from scratch if you have not been sustaining the program all along. My recommendation is to just "do less with less." Keep all the program elements, but cut back on your activities.
In the short term I just don't see any good budget news to share.
