So I'm reading the morning newspaper1 and came across an editorial about the local efforts by the city council to hike city taxes -- see it just off to the right -- in which the editorial board tells the Tea Party group to go home and do their homework:
In the long run, the tea party is right in taking the opportunity to debate the tax issue and to decide for themselves whether the tax increase is feasible or not. Citizens should know the pros and cons of the issue before the council places the proposal on the books.
However, like our city officials, they should be prepared to make real suggestions on what should be cut or what services should be eliminated.
As Tea Party groups all over the country have discovered, the news media folks really like to scrutinize them, complain about them, and in this case, tell them what to do. Can anyone get in on that? If so, here's some more advice to opponents of the city tax hike.
Don't step into the trap the newspaper editorial board and tax hike proponents have laid for you when they invite you to examine the budget and come up with some cuts. The city budget isn't like the federal budget which is packed with obvious pork. For every penny in the 463 page city budget -- almost a half page per employee -- there is someone who will make a very reasonable and logical argument for why they need that penny. They are very good at that, and those proposing the cuts will come across as stingy, mean and uninformed.
In past budget periods the city management simply told the department heads that they had to cut by a certain percent. The resulting cuts had the advantage of having been thought through by the people in charge of implementing them.
If the citizens take the budget apart and replace it with their own and by some miracle it got passed, it would create a potential for backlash from those who would have benefited from the funds that were cut. And I-told-you-we-needed-that-money moments would surely arise.
Last year at a budget hearing an exasperated council member threw up his hands and asked a citizen, "Well, where would you cut?" The citizen responded that the city council members got elected because they were supposed to be able to do the tough job of running a city. If they are as good as advertised, they should be able to come up with solutions.
Footnote-
1A few years ago a local newspaper columnist apologized to his readers for using the internet to seek information. What a laugh riot that guy was. This time I need to apologize to readers for being such an old fuddy-duddy who reads the local newspaper. It's an old habit, and besides, what else can I do? I can spill my porridge on the paper or drool all over it without worrying about it. Not so with a laptop or e-reader.
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