I received the following in an e-mail recently and couldn’t resist posting it here.
This financial crisis is forcing California state and local agencies to make some tough decisions. If things continue to worsen, there’s a real risk that we may have to lay off Jose!!!!!
Like any good piece of satire, it is funny because there is a great deal of truth to it. We should remember this the next time some government official tries to tell us that the government is running as efficiently as possible, that agencies’ budgets have already been “cut to the bone,” or that budget problems require more tax increases.
Besides making the necessary cuts to get government spending back in line with economic realities, government operations (in California and across the country) should be significantly reformed and improved through the use of strategies such as privatization, outsourcing, asset divestiture, and performance-based budgeting.