I have discovered that I can’t leave the animal welfare profession even though I am retired. Last night I dreamt of working on a status quo budget.
The phrase “status quo” literally translates to “the existing state of affairs.’ In budgeting, it means a budget that reflects the current pattern and operational levels without any planned changes or increases. (according to Google)
In reality, given inflation, there is no such thing as a status quo budget; last year’s dollars will not present this year’s operation. So, even with a status quo level of budgeting, you’re forced to reduce areas of your budget due to rising costs of, say, pet food; unless you are prepared to provide cheaper food; which, might cause other budget areas to arise: due to indigestion.
The best insurance for your budget is developing a good relationship with your city/county commission. As I have mentioned in past blogs, in Florida I had a County Administrator hell bend to reducing Animal Control’s budget. But, due to our relationship with our Commission, they stopped him every year because the Commission receives a lot of animal-related complaints and we made sure that we responded promptly to them. The County Administrator never figured out our secret, because he never saw the big picture.
That same Administrator always had us providing cost-cutting budgets each year. In many of them, I would cut my own salary so as to meet the needs of the County. Although losing me was no sweat off the Administrator’s back, the Commission didn’t want to lose their contact person in Animal Control.
In last night’s budget, I was disillusioned with Animal Control agreeing to a status quo budget without thinking that it was really a budget reduction. So, if you think you are ahead by agreeing to last year’s budget, you are going to have to rethink your budget as a reduction. Just know that in advance and let me go back to sleep.