Ingenuity Helps Local Governments: Local Governments Find New Ways To Stretch Their
The city of Rockville has a new way of mowing its grass and collecting litter: It hires private citizens for the job and saves $8,000 a year. As part of a recent productivity campaign, MarylandÛªs second largest city also earned $16,000 by increasing newspaper recycling in the community and saved $750,000 by dropping liability insurance and covering claims itself.</br></br>ÛÏLooking for ways to stretch tax dollars to the max is happening everywhere,Û said Assistant City Manager Daniel Hobbs, who notes proudly that Rockville will be the host of a conference on its money-saving campaign next month for Maryland mayors and city administrators.</br></br>Rockville and other jurisdictions in the Washington area and around the country have been forced to develop some ingenious methods to lessen the impact of federal budget cuts and inflation. The result is hundreds of new, often unorthodox ways to cut costs and locate new resources, from a ÛÏPhantom Storm Drain Cleaner CampaignÛ in Baltimore to an "adopt-a-parkÛ program in Wichita, Kan.</br></br>In some places, these efforts have been motivated by voter-mandated tax limits and by President ReaganÛªs appeal for greater voluntarism. Almost everywhere, however, finding new ways to manage on less money has become an obsession for local officials, the subject of an endless number of seminars, books and newsletters.</br></br>Although everyone agrees these efforts cannot begin to riiake up the difference in billion-dollar federal budget cuts, a host of innovative methods are helping to keep cities, town and individuals afloat.