It’s one of the best lines from the movies, spoken by the prison captain in the Paul Newman classic Cool Hand Luke:
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.�
It’s also a fitting sentiment as we try to grasp how a huge budget crisis formed on the horizon of Erie city government while our leaders were busy wrestling each other for the steering wheel on the boat.
As to who’s to blame, don’t worry.
There’s enough of that to go around.
At least 60 layoff notices are going out to City workers this week, the cumulative result of years of spending outpacing revenues in the general fund budget. Every year money would be moved at year’s end from reserve accounts to cover the shortfall, but how long can you take money from savings to cover your checking account before the well runs dry?
Mayor Filippi tried a number of initiatives to save money, including consolidation of dispatch services, closing the Marsh Street garage and outsourcing some tax collection and payroll services. But his desire to always paint a positive picture of Erie in public and his inability to work with members of council belied the seriousness of the need to make the moves immediately.
Council members pointed to “phantom revenues� like the Mayor’s inclusion of a million dollars in expected payments in lieu of taxes from non-profits.
They never materialized.
Some on council were so hell bent on denying the Mayor anything he asked that they lost sight of the bigger picture.
The image that sticks in my mind is the one of those people wrestling each other on a boat, but the boat is now headed toward the waterfalls.
Everyone is so intent on beating each other that no one realizes that the end is near for all of them.
Failure to communicate indeed.
But before you break out the “I told you so’s,� there’s more.
Members of the media allowed the public’s eye to get off the prize by getting caught up in the petty squabbles and the sexy land deals. We should have spent more time asking, “Hey, what does all this have to do with providing quality services at reasonable costs?�
And for you taxpayers, there’s this:
If you voted, you elected each and every person you now think was sleeping at the switch. If you didn’t vote, if you turned your back on the process, then you deserve the government that you get. Like I said, there’s enough blame to go around.
Erie is a proud city with a long tradition and eventually this too shall pass.
But this budget mess should provide to future generations a cautionary tale that the important things will get away from you if you spend your time distracted by the petty and the trivial.
There are a lot of decent people who will pay the price for that distraction this week, and for taxpayers, the payments will come due for years to come.