Budget. A four letter word.
Balance in many formulas is key. And it’s no different when running a business. You must have certain things to keep going. Cash on hand, cash in reserves, active cash coming in, and as many planned expenses as possible and conversely minimize unplanned expenses. It’s not rocket science. It’s just tedious.
Being an entrepreneur, I have figured out ways to generate revenue from scratch. And then in-turn keep that flow going. I know that we have schools, and police, and fire and water and sewer, and parks to maintain, and recycling, and bulk trash pickup, we have a lot of line items — and many that cannot go. So we have to figure out not only how to keep them, but to enrich them. And I believe we can. So, I plan to do my best to figure out ways that Berlin can generate revenue with existing resources, property, as well as new partnerships that we can leverage. For instance we could join forces with the State of Maryland just like Salisbury does and begin collecting speeding ticket dollars after a period of time. I have gone so far as to offer a portion of my property on Bay Street to install the first one. And I believe that we have a few corridors within the town limits that would serve us well from that perspective on our bottom line. Here’s an excerpt from an article entitled “Salisbury collected more than $1M in speed camera fines: AAA:”
Speed cameras in Salisbury generated more than a million dollars in revenue over the last year, according to information released by AAA.
Overall, speed camera programs across Maryland raked in nearly $64 million in automated traffic enforcement fine revenue during fiscal year 2018. Since FY 2014, 6.3 million motorists in Maryland have forked over $288.5 million in speed camera fines statewide.
Salisbury collected more than $1.3 million in fines, good for ninth highest in the state. Montgomery County was tops at more than $15.9 million.
In Maryland, speed camera citations are issued to motorists exceeding the posted speed limit in school zones and work zones (Maryland Safe Zones) by 12 mph or greater.
Here’s more information from the State of Maryland on AUTOMATED SPEED ENFORCEMENT IN SCHOOL ZONES. From my calculations we have schools placed strategically enough that we could put ASE systems at a few key places around town.