When I started paying attention to such things, I was dumbfounded to find out that my town did not have a 5-10-20 year capital plan.
There was no planning to replace their IT infrastructure, there was no planning for building repairs (like roofs) and there was no consolidated plan to purchase big ticket items (for example: vehicles.)
And this is in a community that has some of the best financial forecasters and managers in the northeast.
We have allowed ourselves to be surrounded by idiots. And what does that make us?