Earlywine PRAS Initiative Rejected by City Council
9:20am 01/05/270 by Corinne Hathaway
Council Leader Nathan Earlywine suffered an embarrassing setback late yesterday when the City Council voted unanimously against his comprehensive Public Resources Allocation Scheme. Under PRAS, the city would lay out an estimated 780 billion lecks to upgrade and integrate all government offices in the Greater Perplex City region into a single centralised system.
Earlywine called the defeat "incredibly disappointing," and insisted that he would revamp the proposal and resubmit it to the City Council within a few weeks. "My plan would vastly reduce wastage and streamline government resources, freeing taxpayer lecks to go toward improving quality of life for all of us," he said. "I'm absolutely still committed to pressing for a leaner, faster government."
Opponents of the system say that the centralisation plan would cost more money to implement than it would save. Other theoretical drawbacks, according to the group Citizens Watching Government, could include unfair allocation of resources; improper sharing of information between governmental offices; and a frustrating increase in layers of bureaucracy required to participate in popular government programs. "The government has grown up with these separate offices and agencies for a reason," said CWG's Katya Yarrow. "Throwing away all of these distinctions without a second thought, just for the sake of saving a few lecks -- that's practically criminal."
The PRAS was one of Earlywine's primary campaign promises in 269. This dismissal of his plan, though, seems to indicate that Earlywine's sweep into office was much more a rejection of former Council Leader Camryn Scott's policies, rather than an endorsement of Earlywine's.
Political analyst Jordan Taylor speculated that the City Council vote could prove to be a watershed moment in Earlywine's tenure. "When he became Council Leader, there was a lot of ill will toward the Academy, and toward Scott, among voters," he said. "But now that the Receda Cube has been returned, people are seeing them in a positive light again. ... In this climate, Earlywine will face an uphill battle to get anything done in the coming months."