City of Wasilla is on the right financial course

March 11, 2005

Frontiersman editorial board

City of Wasilla Finance Director Ted Leonard recently pitched an innovative idea to the city council to change the city's budget to a multi-year budget, instead of the traditional annual budget most businesses, organizations and government agencies are accustomed to.

The city stands to save 600-900 man hours or more, according to Leonard, by shifting to the multi-year process, and the time saved could be used more productively on management, program evaluation and monitoring, long-term planning and other activities.

Juneau is the only municipality in the state of Alaska that broke away from the customary annual budget process, adopting a rolling process eight years ago. While Juneau has realized substantial time savings, an improved ability to plan ahead has been the real benefit.

While there are many differences between Wasilla and Juneau, adopting a multi-year budgeting process could prove to be as good a fit for Wasilla as it has for Juneau. Planning, especially for rapidly growing communities like Wasilla, is essential for sound economic and community development.

According to Juneau's finance director, the two-year budget window forces the city to be more proactive in looking to the future. Taking a proactive approach to future financial planning and city development would absolutely be in the best interests of current, and future, Wasilla residents and businesses.

We commend Ted Leonard and the city of Wasilla for exploring optional processes that not only increase efficiencies, but foster better planning methods in government. Government agencies at the state and local level have been criticized for many years for their lack of fiscal prudence and planning. Waste of money and employees who are paid high salaries for minimal effort have long been the subject of water-cooler banter around the nation.

As state funding continues to shrink, local governments will be forced to seek other ways to further tighten their belts. It's refreshing to see both the city of Wasilla and the city of Palmer exploring and instituting more efficient practices to make better use of taxpayer money.