It’s now just past the Fourth, which means summer is half-over. Sorry to do that to you, and I’m even sorrier for what I’m about to say: You really ought to pay attention to the city government budget discussions.
Your local elected officials and their hired hands are wrestling with what has turned into a humdinger. They’ve got a big budget hole to try to close, either by cutting spending or raising taxes.
Standard stuff, in some ways. And the game of chicken is also the same as usual: The bureaucrats propose big tax bumps or else threaten big cuts to popular programs – if it’s a sheriff’s office, you could always count on them holding the axe over the DARE program – and then the politicians can come in and look like heroes by avoiding either scenario. What almost always results is an increase to your tax bill. I’m not necessarily objecting in principle to that, by the way; I’m just saying that’s the way this game is played.
This year, the choices start with laying off 70 city government employees. On the other hand is the idea of a 1-percent sales tax increase, among other things. There are also less-invasive-but-equally-consequential tactics being considered such as raiding the savings account.
The sales tax proposal is basically a way to subsidize general city operations by coming up with a new way of paying for them. The lure to try to get taxpayers to bite is an indoor pool, which obviously is a want rather than a need. On the other hand, as I’ve said here before, we could sure use one. That issue has also gotten messy because the initial proposal for the pool was to create a behemoth that also included a rec center, all crammed along Fremont in City Park. That was a hugely unpopular concept, and whether city officials can rescue it in the public’s mind remains to be seen.
All of this is not to suggest a particular solution. It is to encourage you, dear reader, to get involved.
City commissioners are good, well-intended people who come at these issues from different perspectives, but who all want to come up with a workable budget. They really can use your input.
Local government budgets are shaped right now, in the dead of summer, while most everybody is half-asleep. That’s not by nefarious intent. That’s just the way it is.
Which actually means you individually can have more influence, simply by paying attention, informing yourself, and making your voice heard. Now’s the time. Big decisions are about to get made.
