Buying effort a good idea

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March 3, 2010

Anonymous The Kokomo Tribune Wed Mar 03, 2010, 03:41 PM EST

THE ISSUE: A regional buying network.

OUR VIEW: The more officials can save on purchases, the more services they can provide.

Congratulations to Cass County commissioners on organizing a first-of-its-kind regional meeting last week to discuss the idea of teaming up with other counties to save money on purchases.

Dave Arnold, president of the Cass commissioners, gathered representatives from a handful of counties and more than 10 vendors to discuss forming a regional buying network. The idea, he said, was to talk with vendors to see how counties might save money if they worked together to buy supplies and services.

Commissioners from Howard County were interested, especially, in consolidating efforts for insurance. Representatives from three insurance agencies were on hand to discuss the advantages and drawbacks of joint insurance purchases, something one of the agents said could result in thousands of dollars in savings.

At the same time, county highway departments are talking about teaming up to find suppliers for oil, fuel, tires, batteries, spare parts or even trucks. Other departments are looking at getting together to buy janitorial and office supplies, and perhaps communications equipment.

A representative from INDigital told those gathered at the meeting that 10 counties in east central Indiana saved more than $1.5 million on technology equipment by buying together.

There might be disadvantages, of course. Forming regional buying groups might make it more difficult for local suppliers to compete for these contracts. And if the cooperative results in contracts with far-flung suppliers, delivery times might be adversely affected.

Still, with today’s tighter budgets, local governments must do everything they can to find ways to save money.

Officials should explore the possibility of teaming up with cities, towns and even school districts to achieve greater buying power. In the end, the more local officials can save on everyday purchases, the more services they can provide with the available tax dollars.

We applaud Cass County officials for organizing last week’s meeting, and we hope they and Howard County officials move ahead with their efforts to form buying partnerships.

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