You thought you heard it all.

This is pure ignorance.
City spends $585,000 on study of how to save money

Consultant's report on Baltimore finances painted grim picture

Why did Baltimore need to pay outside consultants half a million dollars for a report that says the city's financial future is grim?

Some city residents wondered as much after Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called for a new trash collection fee, a smaller city workforce and cuts to employee benefits as a way to deal with the projected $750 million, 10-year budget shortfall the consultants projected. For a city as financially strapped as Baltimore, couldn't that work have been done in house?

The answer, according to city budget director Andrew Kleine, is no.






Though the city's finance department makes three-year projections, it lacked both the manpower and the skill set to make long-term actuarial projections and propose reforms, Kleine said. Many of the more than 100 proposed reforms will be detailed Wednesday when Rawlings-Blake releases the full report, officials said.

"We just didn't have the staff or the expertise to do this," Kleine said. "Our core function is to formulate the budget and monitor the budget."

[link to www.baltimoresun.com]