Lower Merion Citizens for Responsible Budgeting
Letter to Editor Mainline Life Re: Open Government
August 29, 2007
To the Editor:
Chalk up a win for closed government and record a loss for transparency. So far at least, Lower Merion taxpayers have come out on the losing end of another struggle over transparency in local government, in this case, the public’s request for the release of the long-range budget projections that township staff provides to the commissioners.
In Township Manager Doug Cleland’s Nov. 10, 2006 Budget Message, he states: “One of the more important financial management practices, updating current and long-range financial projections, provides the Board of Commissioners an opportunity to make policy decisions, while understanding the long-range impact on our finances.” (Page M-31). Unfortunately transparency and public input are seemingly not so important and you, the taxpayer, are not also entitled to “understanding the long-range impact” on your property taxes.
On Aug, 9, Citizens for Responsible Budgeting (“CRB”- www.lmcrb.org) requested the release of these projection documents. CRB is concerned that some commissioners have in the past and may continue to base current year tax decisions on these non-publicly disclosed long-range spending projections. If commissioners are raising taxes out of concern for future spending needs, taxpayers deserve to see the long-range projections.
We know the long-range projections exist; Manager Cleland referenced them in the 2007 Budget Documents and commissioners have publicly spoken about them. We know some commissioners weighed the long-range projections as they voted to raise taxes last December. What we do not know is why township staff is withholding them. On Aug. 24, CRB received the township staff’s response: “We discussed your request with the Township Solicitor for you to be provided a copy of the budget projections for 2008 and beyond. Longer-term financial projections are informally prepared by staff for internal use only and are therefore not public documents. We are, however, planning to include some multi-year financial projection information in our 2008 Proposed Budget document, scheduled for release in early November.” “Some multi-year financial projection information” sounds nice, but taxpayers deserve the actual long-range projections and they deserve them now. By November, the budget document will have been written; staff guidance will have been given; and the preferences of commissioners will have been established – all before any substantive public input. And it will be too late for the public to influence the tax and spend debate.
The township is clearly providing long-range projections to our elected officials so that they can make informed decisions on matters of tax policy. The public has the same interest in being properly informed when evaluating those decisions. Simple Web searches on “City Budget projections” produces many examples of government disclosing long term projections, so why is our township concerned about releasing their documents? More importantly, where do our elected commissioners stand on withholding this information? Are they in favor of transparency, disclosure and open government, or would our elected officials prefer to keep these projections secret?
The public is not the township’s enemy. Public input often leads to better, more reasoned, and effective outcomes. The projections are available now and should be released now. Transparency, public input and timeliness – in short: good government – requires no less.
David O'Connell