|
|
|
|
Cyclically structural? |
|
|
Saturday, 30 May 2009 |
By Erick Sugimura
Town council has been struggling with the issue of the (un)balanced budget, both internally and in the arena of public scrutiny. The problem of a balanced budget, it should be noted, is shared by many households, businesses, other towns, the state of California, many other states, the country as a whole... you get the idea.
A point of debate appears to be whether we are in what’s known as a cyclical recession (it comes and goes) or a structural recession (there is a flaw in the Town’s budgetary structure).
In following the national news, numerous experts and economists report that the economy will turn around and that it’s the question of when that is left to conjecture.
In other words, the recession, in the opinion of an overwhelming number of ‘experts’, is cyclical.
So, what leads some within the community to believe that our microcosm economy is suffering a structural recession? That, if the rest of the nation recovers, Mammoth Lakes will continue to struggle because it has some fundamental defects in its system?
How are we defining a ‘structural’ recession?
America recovered from the Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 to 1941, so we can’t call this structural because it’s been 18 months.
Mammoth Mountain budgeted conservatively (it thought), but it still laid off 30 year-round employees, as well as ended its food and beverage partnership with Patina.
No doubt, Restaurant LuLu, Gallerie Barjur, Starbucks, Planet Earth, Munchkins and Volcano Sports all budgeted conservatively... All victims of a structural recession?
More likely than not, we are victims of a bigger problem than having too many employees or writing too large a paycheck.
This doesn’t mean that this isn’t happening – and it should be seriously looked at, services need to be prioritized, staffing needs to be appropriate to those services, and commensurate pay applied – but to single out the Town as being in a ‘structural’ recession just plain alarmist.
Granted, we need to find places to save money and the town needs to run more efficiently, but a panic-based hack and slash approach to budgeting is no way to respond to hard times.
Recessions don’t have quick solutions, balance sheets don’t come with switches that can turn the numbers from red to black and knee-jerk responses to the drama-of-the-day often cause more problems in the long-term.
Careful planning, cautious spending and calm heads are what’s needed to make real, lasting change to ensure Mammoth survives this downturn and remains viable as things begin to improve.
If we want to have a future beyond what reactionaries are responding to today, we need to move beyond asking if this is a cyclical or structural recession and start asking, “How can we make Mammoth the most livable, tourist-friendly town... whether the economy is up, down, or inside out?”
“Writer’s Block” is a Times staffer column on any topic — including local issues, a personal glimpse, an opinion, or a humorous/creative subject. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent policies and opinions of the owners of the Mammoth Times. Reader response is encouraged. –MT |
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 05 June 2009 )
|
|
|
|
