Well, Emperor Finkbeiner has released the portions of the 2007 budget, aka “Your Seized Money.” Some of the budget reduction ideas hold some merit, such as the shuttering of the pool system. Let’s face it, the system is underused, and overly expensive to maintain, staff, and insure. Personally, I have no problem with filling them with concrete, then painting them green to placate the environmentalists.
So, what I want to hear is, the sound of liberals screaming – this tax hits the poor far more than the rich. The poor create far more of the garbage being eliminated, that is the stuff that isn’t tossed into the streets by young hoodlums dealing drugs and shooting police officers. So, I suppose, being the evil conservative that I am, I should be in favor of this regressive tax. Sorry guys, as a true conservative, I’m against governmental taxation in as many forms as possible. Let’s try working the guys 8 hours a day (instead of the 6 they average), or better yet, open up the city contract for bids. Oh rats, I suppose we can’t privatize trash collection at the same time we’re trying to seize the ambulance business from private industry. My bad.
Right Wing Toledo
7 comments:
The blade reported that "most of the eliminated jobs are already vacant".
So, eliminating a currently unfilled and unpaid position actually saves the city...nothing.
Eliminating jobs and moving everyone to a different department is also no cost savings. Same amount of paychecks being cut every week.
Getting rid of the pools bothers me not one bit. I can't take my kids to highland park since the local thugs in training break into cars, steal from people's stuff while they swim and, act like animals. Who the hell wants to pay for that? The city ought to LEASE those pools to private companies and take a cut from the till.
The office of reverse racism won't be missed either. Like you mentioned, lowest bidder for the most quality work is how it should always be done just like most qualified candidate with the most to contribute for any job. Special rights aren't equal rights.
As for the poor, most of them are renters and, it will fall on the landlord to pick up the tab.
Well, to be fair, budget numbers and acutal numbers tend to differ - except in government. What would happen would be that the department would take the funds that would have been spent on an unfilled position and spend it on something else - so they didn't "lose" that budget the next year. It's all part and parcel to the baseline budgeting system that seems to dominate in government.
You mean the city should outsource the pools like they did with a failing municipal golf course system years ago? I'd love to see it, but I don't think any company in their right mind would take the pools in the condition they're in now.
RWT,
As usual your logic and common sense cut through all of the government’s smoke and mirrors and cut right to the heart of the problem.
The Fudge-it is at best a burrocratic guesstimate and has no basis in reality, it hasn’t since Toledo went to the “Strong” (but not necessarily intelligent) form of government.
Hizzoner is free to do as he pleases without fear of criticism; he is, after all, the STRONG mayor…
The job of cleaning up after the mayor is a snowball that has finally become too large/hard to push any further, so even the mayor now realizes/admits that costs have to be cut. The problem with this though is that HE gets to do the cutting, so common sense need not necessarily apply here; he cuts what he pleases or displeases, as recent reports seem to back up.
Welcome to the Mad Hatters Tea Party, 2 lumps for me please. . .
What troubles me is hizzoner has unilaterally cut all these jobs. Some of these jobs probably should be cut, but some may not. Who is the mayor to make this decision unilaterally, while increasing his own budget? It is my understanding that hizzoner has already fired people without city council approval, not that he needs their approval to fire his own staff, but it seems that the general job cut proposal should require city council approval. Maybe it's just me, but I think there is a balance of power in place that should be exercised.
Kurt,
The zombies in this city voted for a strong mayor form of government. What we have is exactly that. Under this form of government, the mayor decides the budget, but hiring and firing are directly under his power - the directors serve "at the pleasure of the mayor." So, perhaps, a city manager form of government (where City Council exercises much more power) is what you'd argue for?
Maybe it's time for the citizens to demand an independent audit of the city's budget -- receipts and expenses. I'm sure we'd find plenty of fat to cut in the budget and also we'd find out how and where our taxes are being spent. One thing I would do immediately if I were mayor or on council is to take the city cars the mayor and his cohorts drive and trade them in. I'd then take the money and buy new police cars.
TJ,
Don't kid yourself, the one thing the liberals who run this city fear the most is an open accounting of what and where they spend their money. Look at Emperor Carty's reaction to the bike-path fuss last year - he drug members of the press into his office and "re-educated" them.
Why would he do this? Because if someone questions his expenditures on this, they might start following other threads and unravel an ugly mess.
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