Last modified: Saturday, April 19, 2008 1:01 AM EDT GOUVEIA: Do the math on city and town services Over the next two months local communities will struggle to make their budgets fit within the confines of Proposition 2½, while still maintaining their educational systems and municipal services. This will require innovative methods of revenue enhancement (codeword for finding new monies) as well as difficult cuts in budgets and services. But both officials and the public need to be aware not all "cuts" are created equal. It is one thing to cut a budget in order to get by for a year or so. Frankly, that's not all that hard. You can take advantage of retirements and their replacements at lower salaries. You can cut small programs not considered essential. You can institute energy-saving techniques that reduce your fuel bills. You can tap into town savings accounts, utilizing money set aside for the proverbial "rainy day." You can institute user fees. You can utilize one-time grants from the Legislature or private groups. There are many things you can do to get your community past this difficult year. But what about next year? The mindset amongst town officials, school officials in particular, has been to somehow maintain the current system. They worry about next year - well, next year. And their budgeting practices reflect this philosophy. In most cases, all that does is postpone the real problem. Phony budget cuts, as I call them, allow municipalities to continue spending at a rate they know they cannot maintain in the future. They are one-year fixes and do little to address the real financial issues. At some point, you run out of short-term solutions. Then communities are faced with real and serious cuts in education, public safety and municipal services. Suddenly, an emergency is declared. But that emergency should be no surprise to anyone who has paid attention. The signs were all there. Everyone should have known it was coming. Of course, that doesn't make it any less real or any less urgent. We blame our municipal problems on a variety of things. Some say the towns spend too much. Others point to declining revenues, particularly state aid. But whether you believe the upcoming financial crunch is due to excessive spending or shrinking revenues, the end result is the same. The education of children is affected, our ability to protect our citizens is compromised, and municipal services we have all come to expect are threatened. Getting by for one more year is easier than addressing the real long-term problems. Especially if you are an elected official who hopes to be re-elected in the near future. But at some point, you just can't plug any more fingers in the dike and hold back the surging waters. You need to repair the dam. We need to either better fund the systems we currently use in our city and town governments, or we need to change the basic way they operate. There really are no other logical choices. If the current educational systems are what we want, we need to recognize they are expensive and pay more in taxes. If we are not willing to pay more, then the systems must be changed. Not cut back, not slightly reduced - but changed in ways that are basic and fundamental. If our current public safety programs are important to us, we must recognize the need to better fund them. If we cannot pay any more, then we must change the way we run these departments through regionalization or other means. What we cannot do is simply try and continue to operate the same systems with less money every year. It doesn't work. That is not philosophy, just simple math. Salaries will continue to climb. Health insurance costs will continue to soar. If we continue to do things the same way, it will continue to cost more. The challenge for local officials is to bring this point home, adjust their governmental systems accordingly, and survive the inevitable wrath of the voters. Pay more taxes or get less services - it's that simple. It is no secret what the voters want. They want more services and lower taxes. Someone needs to tell them that ain't happening. BILL GOUVEIA is a local columnist and a former local town official. His column appears every Saturday, and he can be reached at aninsidelook@aol.com.