Elect Bernsen for County Judge

On Budget Philosophy Overwhelmingly, the biggest concern voiced by voters is the increase in taxes and spending. Indeed, County spending has increased 50% in the last four years and it has doubled in the last ten! While campaigning, candidates always talk about the need to cut waste and reduce spending, but they don’t always articulate how they would do so, even as they propose more government as the solution.

The Mindset Matters: What matters most is the mindset and philosophy of those responsible for the budget. Some believe that the government is the answer to everything and can do anything. This mindset will encourage government growth. I believe in individual responsibility and limited government. Since much of the budget is considered fixed, meaning expenditures are difficult to reduce or eliminate, you can either trim the fat around the edges or prevent new expenditures in the first place.

Bureaucratic Mindset: As most voters will recognize, once a new government program is created, it is hard to end. It’s the same with spending. The mindset of a bureaucrat is such that new and increased spending is okay so long as it can be covered with growth in tax revenue from the “voter-approved” tax rate (an “automatic” annual tax increase). They love spending “other people’s money”. They see how much “new money” they have and often budget to spend it all. They may pay little attention to the overall financial health of the County. Unlike a businessman, the salary of a life-long bureaucrat is virtually guaranteed, and they don’t always respect how difficult it is for taxpayers to earn those tax dollars. They see taxpayers as “sheep to be shorn as close to the skin as possible”.

Businessman’s Mindset: The conservative businessman recognizes that there is no such thing as “free money” and is always looking for ways to increase revenue, decrease spending and improve the bottom line. Like a business’s profit, excess revenue can be used to boost the County’s savings account or be “distributed to shareholders” in the form of tax breaks. Excess revenue, unless spent on new or increased spending, can be saved and used to offset new taxes the following year. A businessman who has experienced the feast and famine of the business cycle protects profits, saves for contingencies and pays careful attention to the overall financial health of the balance sheet.

Nickels & Dimes: A bureaucrat may ask, “What does $100,000 matter on a budget of $36 million?” Well, it’s still a lot of money and before long, nickels and dimes become millions! According to the 2026 budget, the government will raise $1.4 million in new revenue. So, $100,000 would be about 7% of that year’s growth. One proposal currently before the Court is to spend $100,000 to hire a consultant to do a salary survey. Since you cannot reduce wages, this survey can only be used to justify salary increases. It was even recognized during the meeting that we could ignore the parts of the survey we don’t like. This seems wasteful to me. As a businessman, all I need is a spreadsheet of salaries, a comparison to other counties and the wise council of the local businesses with which we compete for labor.

The Budget Process: The type of budgeting process we follow, like most, is called incremental budgeting. You take the same amount of money from last year’s budget and adjust it based on predicted changes. While this style is common and easy, it doesn’t carefully consider all spending and so is not the best way to detect waste. One alternative method, and something I propose we do at least once every four years, is called zerobased budgeting. It requires that we evaluate all spending, not just increases, and forces a fresh look at the entire budget. If you want to find wasteful spending, or improve efficiency in general, it’s a better approach. It would require more work, and I wouldn’t recommend it every year, but as government spending skyrockets, perhaps it is time to take a closer look at all spending as a community.

Stay tuned as I have much more to say about the budget. I ask for your vote in the primary. Please support my campaign and read my other policy papers at https:// WilliamBernsen.com/. God bless Fayette County!

William Patrick Bernsen

Pol ad by the William Bernsen Campaign