Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Spending the rainy day funds...

The one textbook that I still have not finalized (and failed to mention last time) is the State & Local Government text. I have an e-mail out to another colleague who has more experience teaching state & local than I do, plus I have 3 examination copies that I need to look through at my office. I am really trying to find a text that helps make that subject interesting! State & Local Government lacks the quantity and quality of "sexy" issues and controversies that other political science classes can boast.

Speaking of "not-so-sexy-issues", we discussed taxing and budgeting policy in both my state and local classes on Monday and Tuesday. One of the concepts we talked about was the "rainy day fund" that many states and municipalities create during surpluses to use for unexpected budgetary needs. I gave the practical example of car repairs as an unexpected budgetary need - which most of the students could easily relate to. Well, today we took Gandalf in to the dealer (Oh how I wish I had Tisch!) because he needed a LOF, tire rotation and was making a new and unusual noise. Well, $1200+ later he is running much quieter, has new fluids in him, and is half-rotated (I didn't get an explanation for that - I have to call tomorrow - but they did it for free.)

Gandalf may be going on 12 years old, but he only has 84,000 miles on him. Because he's a Honda, we expect to have him through at least 150,000 miles - so $1200+ in repairs is definitely worth it.

It would take a lot more money to replace him,
Brad

1 comment:

Alberta said...

BTW, in case you were wondering, Gandolf is our car, not some poor unfortunate child. ;)