Struggling economy forces everyone to set priorities

By Conrad Schesventer

When economies sour, thinking economically becomes even more significant. We position items in our budgets. OK, I need that tank of gas so I'll cut out today's Taco Bell trip. My laptop busted, and I have to move some money around and buy another one, so that iPod will have to wait.

Even major things are prioritized: I'm past due on my cell phone bill, and we have a little bit of food at home, so I'll hold off buying another round of groceries.

Such is life. Governments, if they are even remotely responsible, feel the pinch, too.

Right now Virginia Beach is prioritizing its education budget. A $697.3 million allotment in 2008-2009 has been reduced to a $620.8 million budget for 2012-2013; cuts are being made nearly across the board and reach into teaching positions and interscholastic athletics.

This results from Virginia doing its own ranking of item importance. Health care spending hasn't gone down from year to year; it's unreasonable to expect it would. Transportation has been hampered; the General Assembly entertained sometimes off-the-wall ideas to assist in funding it. The public sector retirement fund was a growing problem, and Virginia threw $2.2 billion at it from money that otherwise would have gone to localities. They then would have spent it on schools.

Not everyone will accept these developments equally. Understandably, many are upset; the schools should always get theirs, roads should be well funded, public workers' retirements should be protected. We should keep the rails of cherished government programs greased by freely flowing revenue into their pots and not harming the others.

But I'm not upset. In fact, this is borderline "I told you so" territory.

There's no better time to hold up a magnifying glass to the proper functions of government than right now.

I find that when things hit the chopping block, you can adequately measure their importance. All too often the status quo of government programs, on whatever level they exist, is that of the compulsive hoarding mentality; it's psychologically impossible to let any program go.

This exposes the government body to too many requirements it would have to service, a dangerous prospect when revenues fall short.

Whether you decide to sacrifice several billion dollars on education or on retirement programs, there's going to be a side that feels hurt and would protest. If transportation were cut, there'd be different but equally present protests.

Makes you wonder what truly deserves the public dime. Education would be an important function; Thomas Jefferson was committed to public education, so that appears to cross the ideological spectrum. Roads are important too, so let's fund them. But what about retirement programs for public workers? Eh, now we're straying from the path of stuff government should be doing.

If taxpayer dollars weren't required for retirement systems, then our education problem wouldn't exist. When we more efficiently order our government's core functions, the days of dreaded budgets cuts would be much fewer and farther between.

Guest columnist Conrad Schesventer, a graduate student at Old Dominion University, lives in Virginia Beach.