That question is one many of us face, no matter where we live. From Minneapolis hears budget recommendations from residents:
[February 9, 2009] 40 Minneapolis residents gathered to talk about the city's budget woes with the mayor and city staff.
The meeting is part of an effort by the city to get public input on how to fill in a 13 million dollar gap in this year's budget.
From the sounds of it, the meeting was part role-playing, part feedback, and a little bit of Budget Hero all rolled into one. So how do people decide what to cut, or restructure? And just what was on the table? One attendee spoke up:
"We're talking about perhaps removing some policemen, some fireman. I'd like to know why politicians are in a protected class," [Ken Bollinger] said.
Bollinger suggested reducing the number of city council members. He might not realize it, but he has some company.
This got me thinking about those items "off the worksheet." What would you cut from your community's budget? How is your city or region handling money difficulties?
This is an open discussion. You don't have to be from Minnesota to answer, and you're welcome to link to your related Gather articles or other online resources. Your comments may be quoted on the air or on Minnesota Public Radio's Web site. You may be asked for more information on your answer, or to help us cover the news.
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Julia Schrenkler
Minnesota Public Radio
American Public Media
Objects in Mirror
Related Resources:
Minneapolis Official City Budget site
More from MPR:
The State Budget in Your Backyard
White Bear Lake residents forum (Live event 2/12/2009)
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Comments: 12 ( 1 removed by Julia Schrenkler )
Stop busing children across town so that we supposedly have "economic diversity" in our schools, let them go to the school in their own neighborhoods. We could save a ton of money on buses, bus drivers, gas and up keep.
I'm running for Mayor of a Village on a consolidation of services platform, where the town & Village can stop duplicating services, and bring their zoning and building codes together so one office can oversee them - not two. And I'm looking at it on a department by department basis. I believe we are all facing or will soon face the money crunch this economy is causing. Failure by the encumbents to act on these ideas forces us now to react.
If THAT happens...they won't be able to toss out that word "socialism" and scare the beJesus outta people and people will be less afraid of words some of them don't even know the definition of (other than noun, SO-sha-Lism - Bad thing.) anyway. Socialists will take power and the next thing you know some jack-booted thug dressed in black will be kicking down your front door and dragging your children out kicking and screaming to 're-education centers' where they will be taught to be good Socialists and THAT may be fine for YOU PEOPLE but it's NOT gonna fly by THIS US citizen...
Umm. Wait a minute. I have a teenager living at home. Umm. Never mind.
A big city like Philadelphia has lots of places where waste is rampant. However, during the past several week, Mayor Nutter has been closing libraries and fire stations. He's a typical evil politician who thinks that if he hits where people hurt, they'll give in to him.
What he and City Council will never touch is their secret perks, or the political reward sinecures that guarantee jobs for their pet supporters and family members.
Do the mayor and city council members need chauffeurs paid for by taxpayers to get to work every morning? NO! Does th mayr need all those bodyguards? NO! Does the school district headquarters need to be stuffed with all thos administrators who do nothing and are worth nothing? Most teahers think that if you fired at least half of them, the school district would run better and there would be money for things like repairing broken windows and having enough up-to-date textbooks to go around. Should City Council members get to fill their gas tanks on the public payout? NO!!!
Should all the libraries and firehouses stay open? Yes!
But will City Council members vote away all their perks? Will they vote away the do-nothing-but-decorate-a-desk "jobs" in their offices, traffic court, etc? It'll be a cold day in he//!
The city manager ran an article in the paper threatening to cut those things if people didn't pass the 1% sales tax increase that he wanted. It didn't pass. Now he can't understand why. The people gave him his answer - start cutting!
It might behoove Pawlenty to take an honest look at accepting Federal assistance instead of trying to make a name for himself as Mr. No New Taxes - which, incidentally, isn't working because Minnesotans are smart enough to realize that FEE = TAX.
Is or current government "sustainable"?