Based on my own experience at local government meetings, I don’t think the knowledge is all in one place.
The meeting I’m thinking of was the city council advocating extending a tax that was due to expire. They had a presentation deck full of the things they planned to use the money for. That’s all well and good, but when I raised my hand and asked what proportion of incoming revenue for the public works department and the overall city budget the tax currently made up... crickets.
No one there knew exactly how much public works was allocated, because the director of public works. They had the overall city budget numbers handy, but no one there had a breakdown by source, and no one knew where to find that information.
I see. So they didn't even have the tools to gather the data in the first place it sounds like, let alone figure out how to put together a simulation for it.
The meeting I’m thinking of was the city council advocating extending a tax that was due to expire. They had a presentation deck full of the things they planned to use the money for. That’s all well and good, but when I raised my hand and asked what proportion of incoming revenue for the public works department and the overall city budget the tax currently made up... crickets.
No one there knew exactly how much public works was allocated, because the director of public works. They had the overall city budget numbers handy, but no one there had a breakdown by source, and no one knew where to find that information.