Unintended Consequences
January 7, 2011 - by
To cut spending Republican leaders in the General Assembly, the News and Observer reported the other day, are considering allowing Governor Perdue’s Cabinet Secretaries to decide what to cut in their departments.
In other words the legislature will decide that, say, the Department of Transportation budget must cut $200 million to balance the budget, then instruct the Secretary of Transportation to make the cuts he thinks wisest.
That sounds imminently reasonable and like a sound business-like way to cut the budget except for one caveat – this is politics.
Stop to imagine what may happen if the legislature tells Governor Perdue’s appointees to decide who or what gets cut – all the Democratic patronage appointees and state contractors may keep their jobs and contracts. Or, for example, roads favored by Perdue supporters may be built while others, well, may not.
Or imagine the legislature telling lobbyist-turned-Cabinet-Secretary Lanier Cansler to cut the DHHS budget – how likely is it Secretary Cansler will cut the $24 million contract he gave his former client CCME Corporation?
Of course, maybe I’m being cynical and, instead, when it comes to what to cut politics will never enter into Governor Perdue’s appointees calculations. But, then again, it’s just possible putting the Governor’s political appointees in charge of deciding who or what gets cut may have unintended consequences.
Unintended Consequences
January 7, 2011/
To cut spending Republican leaders in the General Assembly, the News and Observer reported the other day, are considering allowing Governor Perdue’s Cabinet Secretaries to decide what to cut in their departments.
In other words the legislature will decide that, say, the Department of Transportation budget must cut $200 million to balance the budget, then instruct the Secretary of Transportation to make the cuts he thinks wisest.
That sounds imminently reasonable and like a sound business-like way to cut the budget except for one caveat – this is politics.
Stop to imagine what may happen if the legislature tells Governor Perdue’s appointees to decide who or what gets cut – all the Democratic patronage appointees and state contractors may keep their jobs and contracts. Or, for example, roads favored by Perdue supporters may be built while others, well, may not.
Or imagine the legislature telling lobbyist-turned-Cabinet-Secretary Lanier Cansler to cut the DHHS budget – how likely is it Secretary Cansler will cut the $24 million contract he gave his former client CCME Corporation?
Of course, maybe I’m being cynical and, instead, when it comes to what to cut politics will never enter into Governor Perdue’s appointees calculations. But, then again, it’s just possible putting the Governor’s political appointees in charge of deciding who or what gets cut may have unintended consequences.