With mass government cutbacks to schools, public parks and other departments being announced every day, there seems to be no end in sight how deep these cuts can go.
That's why I was especially interested in an announcement from California Governor Jerry Brown' office.
Gov. Brown has taken a step that may seem like a small thing, but it turns out that a lot of California state employees have cell phones. Cutting back just half of those phones can easily save the state $20 million annually, he estimates.
Gov. Brown wondered, as I did when reading the press release, why 40 percent of all state employees—that's 48,000 people—need to be equipped with cell phones, all paid for by the state.
I can only think of a few reasons why state employees would need to be in 24-hour contact, all of them having to do with emergencies.
We've heard outcries and complaints about a number of cuts and layoffs, some of those complaints justified. But I wonder who will have the nerve to complain that they no longer have a paid cell phone. Cutting back on garbage collection, road repairs or usage of public parks seems ludicrous in light of the money being spent on cell phones.
Gov. Brown is doing what many federal, state and local municipalities are beginning to do and should do more of—look at expenses line by line, to see what is indeed necessary and what isn't. It's easy to overlook something like cell phones. Add them all up, however, and as we see here, the savings are substantial.
Hopefully other states will take notice and begin making cuts and consolidations that are sensible, for things that few will notice are gone. In fact, I wonder how many public sector employees really need to have their automobiles and gas paid for…
Any ideas out there about where such cuts can be made—public or private?
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