When there is a kink in the funding hose, how quickly does your small Maine town whip out the wrenches?
Start the repairs, adjustment, re-tooling? Fire up the bilge pumps. To short and sweet debate the options on the table. Or is it wish everything somehow restores to earlier levels of funding. And just keep spending as if all is peachy keen, rosy?
Just hope for the best and limp along? Ignoring what is happening. Or not liking it so just turn your head and hope it foes away.
That someone steps forward with a magic wand. Smaller David size towns reach for the sling shot they carry on their utility belts. That get used a lot daily. These smaller Maine towns should be able to react quicker than larger population centers. Before bleeding out. Dying on the vine with a rattle, one last gasp.
The options of what to do when they are pretty limited.
In black and white easy to read spelled out with no punches pulled. Nothing held back. Or discussed backroom, cloaked. On a small in number list to study, consider and then double clutch. Throw the plan quickly into gear for the steep hill ahead. To clear it whatever way necessary. To keep the small Maine town moving.
Less people, more thinking on our feet happens in our Maine households, in our small businesses.
It’s called survival. Living within or even below your means because bumps, twists, dips in the road happen. A lot. When stormy weather is ahead or underway around us. Baton down the hatches.
More connection to the small Maine town we all know and love happens here. Because we are all more involved everyday. Everything is up close and personal. Just a case of being on the front lines in the attack on what threatens the small Maine town. To at least maintain the population and long term make it grow, prosper. But a consensus on how to do that and everyone working toward that goal is needed. As the economical landscape changes. The economy tilts.
With rear wheel drive, the apply more power, drive your way out of the skid worked on a Maine country road.
After a Maine winter snow storm left a little surprise of the extra white stuff. But with the delicate small Maine town economy, monitoring the gauges. In all the departments, areas. Checking the pulse of the incoming revenue to make sure the spending habits match the income faucet flow rate.
Not a case of just throwing money at the problems that spring up. But reduction, like it or not, of spending, levels of service, even manpower.
Working together. Not just concern for your small department, carved out area that’s important to a just few individuals. At the expense of the greater good of the rest of the small Maine town or geographic area.
Other wise it’s like the sink or swim games played on the Titanic when too few life boats hung from the ropes. But it was every man, woman and child for themselves.
As the big vessel groans, creaks, stretches, lists. Prepares for a break in two death snap. Then nose dive, picking up speed. The fast descent to a liquid grave. Into dark ocean’s floor below the icy cold water’s surface. Where the boat used to ride high, wide and handsome. While the music played, food was served on new plates and some folks danced, laughed.
When not enough dollars for the same level of service happens in a small Maine town.
To fund increased costs. For what a Maine small town population has enjoyed in the day to day life there. Hello. What are we waiting for in the simple math exercise of the small Maine town has to make changes. To accept quickly not going to have the same level of service.
Or it is a luxury you could try to tax your way out of but in the long run it speeds the decline. Causes folks to have to relocate. Like it or not. Small Maine businesses to go under.
To dig out the hammer, shutter their windows. If it is a course the small Maine town government takes of using raising taxes to white out the red ink of spending more than the towns people can afford.
Deficit spending did not work on the national, state level.
Certainly does not cure ills on the local level. Mergers of nearby school systems, greater cooperation of existing layers of police departments with a duplication of service area. Making a game of how would we do it, an exercise in greater efficiency for the survival of the small region of a county has to happen. Before forced to do it, in the eleventh hour when great expense but time ran out. And folks tempers are frayed, emotions run high. And it feels forced on the small Maine towns.
If we do it, how would we do it thinking. Discussions held coolly, calmly. Not no sir. Not going to do it or even talk about it. Not a matter of liking it, wishing for the good old days to return. But seeing the icebergs before, or worse as they hit. But no time to argue or get mad. Point fingers. We don’t have days to waste. Need solutions, options, but not any further delay. That’s what a small Maine town better be, has to do. It is how that community survived this long accepting needed change.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com