A Paradox: Quality-of-Life Services in an Age of Fiscal Scarcity

Jamie Sabbach, President & Principal, 110% Inc.

October 27, 2025

Partial Image Credit: City of Chandler, AZ

Across the United States, local governments are confronting a growing and uncomfortable truth: the math no longer works. Decades of expansion, deferred maintenance, and structural imbalance have brought many communities to the edge of a fiscal cliff. Costs are rising faster than revenues, infrastructure is aging faster than it can be replaced, and the public’s appetite for amenities shows no sign of slowing down.

At the center of this crisis sits a service area that, for generations, has defined what it means to live well in a community: parks and recreation. Once regarded as proud symbols of civic health and community identity, park and recreation systems have become among the first casualties of fiscal stress. This paradox—that the very services credited with a community’s quality of life are often treated as expendable reveals much about how local governments have lost their fiscal footing.

From Expansion to Erosion

The roots of today’s fiscal crises reach back decades. Communities grew, often rapidly, and built generously. Parks, trails, recreation centers, sports complexes, aquatic facilities, and cultural venues reflected optimism, ambition, and the physical expression of a community’s aspirations. But few asked the harder question: Can we sustain what we build?

The focus was on ribbon cuttings, not replacement costs. The logic of “build now, pay later” became a cultural norm in local government, quietly creating long-term financial liabilities that outlived the administrations that approved them. The result: expansive systems with limited means to maintain them. Deferred maintenance grew, infrastructure aged, and the cost of stewardship became too large to ignore.

Misaligned Perceptions of Value

Parks and recreation are often described as “nice to have”, essential in spirit but optional in budget. In times of fiscal stress, they become the easy target. Unlike police or fire protection, their absence doesn’t immediately threaten safety. Yet the benefits of parks—improved physical and mental health, economic resilience, environmental protection, and social connection are foundational to a thriving community.

This disconnect between what residents value and what decision-makers fund is a central flaw in how communities define essential services. The irony is that while parks and recreation contribute to the social fabric, civic pride, and long-term livability of a community, they are consistently the first sacrificed when fiscal stewardship is absent.

A Revenue Model Built for Another Era

Local government finance systems were designed for a different economy. Reliance on property and sales taxes leaves communities vulnerable to economic swings and changing consumption patterns. State and federal support has declined, while costs for labor, healthcare, energy, and capital renewal continue to escalate.

The result is a widening gap between what communities promise and what they can afford. For many, fiscal cliffs are not sudden events but slow-moving consequences of structural imbalance, delayed decisions, and unrealistic expectations.

Political Short-Termism and the Avoidance of Trade-Offs

Few elected officials are rewarded for restraint. The politics of saying “no” are far more punishing than the politics of “yes.” As a result, difficult but necessary choices are often deferred. Facilities remain open despite declining use, programs persist without evaluation, and resources are spread thin across systems.

This is not mismanagement so much as it is misalignment. Communities aspire to provide abundance without acknowledging limits and hesitate to engage in conversations about what should be maintained, what can be reduced, and what may need to end. Without a shared language of fiscal stewardship, decisions become reactive rather than strategic.

The desire to serve everyone has morphed into sustained pressure to provide everything. Spreading scarce resources too thin only guarantees that no one is well-served in the long run.

The Erosion of the Social Contract

Underlying all of this is a quiet shift in the public’s relationship with government. Citizens increasingly see themselves as customers rather than co-stewards. Expectations are high, patience is low, and the understanding that public services require shared responsibility has diminished.

The social contract, the implicit agreement between citizens and their government to balance wants with means, has weakened. When people expect everything but resist paying for it, when elected officials promise more but cannot pay the bills, trust erodes and cynicism grows.

To move forward, communities must rediscover the art of fiscal stewardship, not as a constraint, but as a value system. Stewardship is not about cutting; it’s about caring for what exists. It’s about aligning aspirations with capacity, and reestablishing trust that public resources are being managed wisely and transparently.

Financial sustainability is the end goal, but stewardship is the means. It is the daily practice of responsibility, humility, and long-range thinking. In the context of parks and recreation, it means designing systems that are financially durable and operationally sound.

Quality of life is not measured by how much we build, but by how well we sustain what we already have.

If local government is the steward of community well-being, then parks and recreation are its conscience and reminder that prosperity without prudence is short-lived. Fiscal cliffs are not inevitable; they are the predictable outcome of choices made without responsible stewardship. The challenge ahead is not merely to survive the crisis, but to redefine success itself: to measure progress not by growth, but by sustainability—not by more, but by enough.

Jamie Sabbach is President & Principal with 110% Inc., a consulting firm which focuses on ethical decision making, adaptive leadership, and the financial sustainability of public parks and recreation. She can be reached at jsabbach@110percent.net.