With local tax revenues falling, budgets stretching, and a loud cry across the board for less government in many communities around the country, the current times are not faring well for planners. Many places have been forced to lay off entire departments or outsource services to private planning firms while scaling back their projects.
However another option is presenting itself and starting to take hold in communities all around the country, and that is service sharing. In Michigan, this has been becoming more and more common; starting with school districts. Cash strapped districts have executed plans that involve numerous examples service sharing, especially in superintendents as districts look to lower administrative overhead. Cities are doing more and more of the same. Police, fire and EMS services are being shared as other ways of being able to save money. In some cases, they outsource their services completely to another entity, such as a city conceding their police services away from the local police in favor of the county sheriff’s office.
And then, there’s planners.
Planners, often at the bottom of the chopping block, face two options when it comes to city government cutbacks: bad and worse. For those at the bottom of the food chain are layoffs, unemployment, and resorting back to the hunt for potential work or internships.
People who are fortunate enough to keep their jobs will be looking at a new level of stress and longer hours as cities have begun to share city planning services, the same as schools with their superintendents. Tennessee has been hit recently, as their state sponsored planning agencies developed to assist in local planning efforts have had their budgets gutted.
The Jackson Sun reports that:
“We cannot afford to hire a full-time planner,” said Brownsville Mayor Jo Matherne on Thursday.
Instead, Brownsville now uses one of the two planners hired by the Southwest Tennessee Development District to do the city’s planning. The city pays the district $14,000 annually. That amount likely is the greater amount paid by any of the six local governments, she said, because it is the largest city by population in Southwest Tennessee outside of Memphis and Jackson with more than 10,000 people.
I anticipate that smaller to mid size communities that are similar in size and demographics will be those to first combine planning services, so big city planners should have little to fear (Minneapolis / St. Paul, disregard that last statement).
Look for more of service sharing to occur, at least until the economy bounces back and tax revenues stabilize. Until then, keep your fingers crossed and prove your worth to your employer.