How much does it costs government to bring water to your home? To upgrade an aged water distribution system with new pipes or computer sensing devices that monitor pressure and flow?
The costs are high. These high costs rarely are reflected directly in the financial statements published by municipalities and special districts. Instead, only costs of equipment, contractors and salaries are stated. This kind of accounting is peculiar, and is particular to each municipality.
A new water distribution technology may have great appeal to the elected councilmen/councilwomen who are the overseers of government budgets if it promises to save taxpayer money. Unfortunately, suggested improvements come a dime-a-dozen, and wary government officials become saturated with pitches by contractors that offer to improve government budgets. Worse, most officials are incompetent to measure the strengths and weaknesses of new technologies, in fact, are incompetent to understand the old systems they were elected to oversee. Rather than analysis, they respond with emotional enthusiasm over something that looks good and easily understood, yet reluctant and stubborn over something not understood.
The costs of educating elected officials, getting the right information and the right technology before a board or council are not reflected in municipal budgets. In other words, the costs of trial and error are not reflected. Once a project is approved, change orders are routine. Reading through the books and records of a capital project, through the invoices, change orders, waivers and payouts is an unknown subset of the literature – both comic and dramatic.
A new, unknown example of government budgeting has emerged in Colorado – marijuana revenues and costs. Newspaper and TV reporters have little knowledge of government budgeting and state only the revenue side of potential pot sales without reference to the expense side of the new pot industry in Colorado. How much does a new pot administrative agency cost? What are the costs of inspectors, administrators, training enforcement, consumer control, contamination, tax collection? How much will police DUI equipment and training cost? What are other increased costs?
In summary, trying to parse municipal and special district budgets is possible only on a case-by-case basis, and even then an auditor/reviewer must be open to surprises and creativity.