For example, if Governor Gray Davis plans to cut all California state services including emergency services, these new funds might be brought in to simply supplement existing funds already in place. In a case like this, efforts to achieve a true change in bettering our nations emergency services will have very little hope of succeeding. It is also unclear if our government will continue to release additional funds on an ongoing/recurring basis for emergency based services within the United States. If this is a one-time extra shot for each state, what is the best strategy to take with these funds?
For any growth to take place in equipping our emergency services, not only will a significant amount of funds need to be made available, but these funds will actually have to increase the total state budget allocations for emergency services rather than being used to supplement other parts of those budgets. In states facing economic challenges such as California, this may be considered virtually an impossible situation to accommodate.
However, every state can use new government funds to make significant positive advancements, both within wireless and other technology and services by making well thought out decisions. For example, it is clear that each state is going to have similar issues when it comes to how and what technology will be needed to help enhance their services (wireless or otherwise). In the case of technology, states should be working together to leverage as much as they can as an organized front, especially when it comes to purchase commercial software or seeking to development customized software. Here is the challenge, it is likely that one state such as Washington will seek to invest into the software development of some new technology and the state of Missouri, Alabama, Ohio, and Maine are all looking to do virtually the same thing (in some cases with the same vendor). Without any knowledge of each other’s pursuit, the cost to the United States taxpayer virtually becomes four times more expensive. In addition, there is power in numbers of purchasing any type of product. For example, if a vendor is offering their product for $50,000, but has price breaks down to $30,000 based on quantity, states working together can benefit from the economy of this scale.