Westlund ready to fight the good fight

When Post Falls Mayor Randy Westlund addressed the city's financial position Monday, he said something we wish more elected leaders were willing to say. Not in these exact words, but the message was clear: We have a budget problem, and raising property taxes is not the solution.

Westlund warned of what he called "a substantial deficit on the horizon that will only get worse over time." More importantly, he rejected the familiar government playbook for dealing with financial trouble:

"The response from many elected officials will be to raise taxes by the maximum amount, put levy overrides on the ballot, burn through savings, and hope things somehow get better. Post Falls is going to be different. We will not leave a crisis for those who come after us. We will be proactive. Government must live within its means just like everyone else."

A government living within its means? That should not be a radical idea.

No one disputes that operating a city is expensive. Maintaining roads, providing water and sewer service, operating parks and funding police and fire departments all come with significant costs. Personnel expenses consume the largest share of most municipal budgets, and those costs continue to rise.

As Westlund noted, employee health insurance costs alone are increasing by more than $600,000 this year. Cost-of-living and merit raises add another $1.5 million. Those figures raise an obvious question: If revenues are not keeping pace, can every benefit and compensation increase continue as if nothing has changed? 

Post Falls is hardly alone. As Westlund put it:

"The City is in a difficult financial position. Inflation and skyrocketing expenses have far outstripped tax revenue, driving us toward insolvency ... And it's not just us. Every local taxing district in Idaho is in the same position."

His conclusion was blunt: "It's going to get worse."

Those four words should command the attention of both elected officials and taxpayers. If the trend line is headed in the wrong direction, waiting to act only makes future corrections more painful. 

Westlund also correctly recognized that cities cannot simply wait for the state to solve their problems.

"We must do whatever is necessary to ensure the city continues to operate well into the future. The sooner we make changes and any necessary cuts, the better financial position we will be in 10 years from now."

Exactly right. 

Two parts of Westlund's strategy stood out.

First, the city is looking for efficiencies through artificial intelligence. According to the mayor, AI is already helping the city manage growth without adding staff and may allow Post Falls to conduct some research and data analysis internally rather than paying outside consultants. Whether every AI initiative succeeds remains to be seen, but officials deserve credit for looking for ways to do more with existing resources before asking taxpayers for more money.

Second, and perhaps most importantly, Westlund used two words many elected officials avoid: reduce services.

"We know we need cuts. The chief difficulty is determining which services to cut, as everything is valuable to someone."

That's reality. Every line item in a budget has a constituency. Every program benefits someone. But responsible government requires setting priorities and making difficult choices rather than pretending that every service can continue indefinitely regardless of cost.

We wish Westlund and the Post Falls City Council success in their effort to put the city on firmer financial footing. The mayor's central point is the right one: government cannot spend more than taxpayers can reasonably support forever.