Incent Residents to Find Cost Savings for Town

They say “two heads are better than one.”

Given this, perhaps the town should consider obtaining and offering privately-funded incentives to encourage more citizen involvement in finding cost savings.

Here’s how it would work.

The town could solicit local merchants for significant non-cash prizes. The town could then publicize that it’s seeking public input on cost-saving ideas (noting the availability of the prizes and mentioning the businesses that provided them). Then the town could evaluate any suggestions generated and award the prizes to residents who present meaningful savings ideas that it implements. The prizes would be given to people who are not town officials, employees or appointees.

It’s really a “win-win-win” proposition. The citizen offering the idea wins a great prize. The merchant providing the prize wins free favorable publicity. And most importantly, taxpayers win by saving more of their hard-earned money.

While citizens have always had the ability to make cost-cutting suggestions, offering incentives would bring renewed attention to the issue of saving the town money and will cause some residents to think more seriously about it. After all, many people are motivated by contests and this proposal taps into that drive.

I’m not saying that giving away prizes will “flood” Town Hall with new savings ideas. Nor am I suggesting that this would be a substitute for the town officials’ ongoing hard work on the budget. But in this tough economy with the prospect of cuts in essential town services, even one good idea resulting from this initiative will have made it well-worth trying.