This is the challenge that most of us in SE Michigan face on a daily basis.
We are all asked to do it better for less. Doing less for less is not acceptable. Nor is doing the same for less.
We all have shrinking budgets and yet are required to improve our work output and the quality of our work.
The alternative in this global economy, is that there are workers and businesses both in the US and abroad that are willing to do our jobs or produce our goods and services better for less money.
So the complaint by the Oakland County Road Commission that they are getting less money and the implication that that tight budgets prevent them from clearing the roads, well, quite frankly that does not cut much slack among taxpayers who are asked every day to do better with less.
And, although Road Commission jobs cannot be outsourced, the services of the Road Commission can be privatized. And a private company charged with competitively bidding on the job of clearing the county roads would be asking their managers and workers to do it better for less.
I would say that judging from the condition of the roads after the last storm, Macomb County's Road Commission members get this. They are doing it better for less.