How I have seen the government spend money.

I have been part of the government (military and civilian) for over 22 years and I thought I would share a little story about how the government spends money for those that have never been a part of the government. I will use the my last job in the Air Force as an example but it has worked this way everywhere I have been. I have also talked to state employees who have related similar stories.

On Oct 1, the DOD gets the money that they asked for in their budget and they disperse it to the various Branches. But, they don't disperse it all, they set some aside as an emergency fund.Then the Air Force disperses the money it got to its various Commands. But, they don't disperse it all, they set some aside as an emergency fund. Then the Air Mobility Command disperses the money it got to its various Bases. But, they don't disperse it all, they set some aside as an emergency fund. Then Scott AFB disperses the money it got to its various base Agencies. But, they don't disperse it all, they set some aside as an emergency fund. Then the Hospital disperses the money it got to its various hospital Sections. But, they don't disperse it all, they set some aside as an emergency fund. Then, throughout the year, the Sections spend the money they got on equipment and supplies and medications and so on.

If a Section runs out of money, the request goes up the chain and it is paid out of someones emergency fund. If one fund goes dry, it goes further up the chain, the fund is replenished or the over budget is paid and so on...until the last week of the fiscal year. During that last week of September, various emergency funds still have money left in them. What do you think happens to that money? Returned to the general fund? Rolled over to the next year's budget? Nope.

What actually happens is that the last week of September, money starts flowing down the chain because the books will balance, oh yes...they will balance. And no one wants anyone to think they can get by on a smaller budget next year just because they didn't spend everything they were given this year. So the money starts to flow. We always called it "Fallout Money".

So much fallout money flows that it is not unusual for the people in Logistics and Finance around the Air Force to have to work overtime to make sure it is all spent and all the orders are processed. They are sometimes working until 1159PM on Sept 30th in case unexpected money is found somewhere and comes down. Wish lists for new stuff are planned out weeks in advance of the money flow so there are certain to be enough things to buy when the money flows down. In our case, it was always new tools, test equipment, occasionally furniture or work benches. But we always had a list. You rarely got everything but you knew you were going to get something.

At the hospitals I worked at in the military, a million dollars was typical fallout money. Sometimes more. But it varied based upon the size of the hospital and, sometimes, how prepared the hospital was to spend the money as quickly as possible. You snooze, you might lose. Make a longer wish list next year.

That is for one agency, on one base, in one command, in one branch of the military.

Just a little insight as the debt commission gets ready to give us its master plan next week.

 

See my tag line below:

 

I like Coburn's presentation today. There are 56 different programs by the government whose purpose is to teach us how to handle our finances. Now, soes anyone else see anything just a bit ironic about that?

 

No. I can't. I have that feature turned off.

 

I worked for the State of Michigan for a year under the CCCP program or whatever it was called... I forget... a program for low-income youth. I worked at a local state park with about half a dozen other kids. In my case, at the park, the funds for our pay ran out about a month before the fiscal year eneded... not the boss's pay (of course), though his pay was probably double of all of ours combined. Anyway, they needed one guy to stay, I was picked since I was there the longest, but was finishing my year of work in a few weeks so they also kept the second most vested kid. The rest were told to try to reapply in a month... maybe they'd get lucky.

That's my limited experience. Not arguing anything here, I believe the government wastes money needlessly too at certain times like the ending of a fiscal year.

I mention it in support of further programs like the one I was in. Some talk has gone to mandatory community service for kids, and I could support that if the kids got payed and also received a benefit like additional schooling (in the form of grant money) or something similar.

 

At the VA 2 years ago, our particular section was swimming in fallout money. It came down late and had to be spent fast and we were ready. We bought new test equipment and tools and spare parts until we literally ran out of things we wanted to buy.

This year, there was a similar amount of fallout money for the facility but it came down earlier and the section above us scooped all of it up and was able to spend it all before it got to us. Our section 'only' ended up with about 10 grand to spend and that was because another section was not ready to spend all of the money they were given and we gladly offered to 'help' them.

So, not all sections will get the money when it come down or are properly prepared for it but that doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't money flowing somewhere else.

And, at the federal level, anyway, money is in different 'pots'. There could be a million dollars come down but that doesn't mean it can be spent on salary or extra entitlements or something else. It can't. You have to buy goods (equipment, parts, supplies, etc) even if you are cutting positions because you can't pay for them. For instance, we got all this extra end of year money to spend the last 2 years but, at the same time, all of us are under a federal pay freeze to help with the budget problems. Go figure.

 

Happens over here in just the same way LOL

 

Lets add one more program and we will have one for every state!

 

So huw much of the fallout money is spent on outrageously priced items. You know, like a $10 screwdriver that is purchased for $200?

 

In my experience, none really. These days, compared to 20 years ago, the government is probably much less likely to overpay on stuff like that when buying. Most of the stuff is bought from normal sources or from standard GSA contract prices. You can pretty much buy from anyone or any company these days so the competition is good. When I go to buy parts and tools, the government usually gets a discount over retail price because of that stiff competition.

$200 screwdrivers and $1000 toilets are probably much more likely to occur when dealing with contractors...say during a building renovation or new construction, etc. But, I have little experience at that, contractor, level.

What I could talk all day long about is how much we have to pay for specialized medical parts to repair equipment and on the general price of medical equipment to begin with. That is unreal. But everyone, in or out of government, gets raked on medical stuff. lol