Budgeting a local city/town? The best way to do it?
I've been thinking about this. A lot of us would like to localize many of today's issues and I completely agree with this, most importantly on education.
If you are an elected official in a city government, what is the best way to stay fiscally responsible and conservative while still keeping the people of your city happy and prosperous, especially when a lot of policies are directed from the state and federal government that make it difficult to enforce fiscally conservative positions?
Maybe somebody with some experience in the field could talk. Anybody really. I just want to know. To me, it seems like if you're local you would not want to leave any money on the table unless you are putting it into future projects, but you also want to live within your means and the money provided to you by the state.