City efficiencies committee says cutting costs alone won’t help plug deficit

A group of financially-savvy executives tasked with looking at the city’s budget to identify ways to save agreed Friday that the city’s budgetary woes are less about wasteful spending and inefficiencies and are largely due to structural problems outside Salem’s control. 

In discussions during four meetings over the past two weeks, group members concluded that while the city is already stretched thin by chronic understaffing and dwindling resources, it is successfully squeezing more services out…