Cities, towns need their own assessment tools

To the Editor:
With the extraordinary downturn in our aggregate economy (“Panel: 6 R.I. cities, towns face fiscal crisis,” Jan. 29, 2010), our government on all three levels has been falling into a cosmic collapse of sorts. Thus, the need for re-engineering our priorities, categories of expenditures and service delivery systems, including ongoing debt management, is code red.
The concept of a monitoring mechanism from the state that tracks fiscal activities is fine, but a similar tool for local governments would be ideal as well.
The composition of municipal budget documents (including schools) can be made more accessible to the layman. The result will be a better relationship between a town, its civic leaders and the general citizenry.
In addition, local and state elected officials (in addition to career civil servants) should meet at least annually in a financial summit as a matter of policy and fiscal responsibility.
The result of ongoing tracking and monitoring of state and local budget activities, as well as the involvement of policymakers and financial officials, will provide much better insight into the functioning of our government in its goal of providing its citizenry a cleaner, leaner and more effective means of governance.
Note: An Economic Enhancement Commission (similar in nature to the financial summit) should be engaged as a geo-commercial representation of the state, to be utilized as a feedback tool for the R.I. Economic Development Corporation in generating some immediate and continuing policy recommendations that can be assimilated into the tax, budgeting, regulatory and marketing matrixes, with the goal of improving the state’s dividends for such public investments.
Jack Lancellotta
Jaycee Education & Library Foundation,
executive director