A few days ago I penned a blog regarding Pam Schwartz's candidacy for Ward 4 city council, a seat being vacated by councilor Narkewicz. In that post I commented on second hand reports I'd received regarding the budget meetings turning into as I called them, de facto override rallies. A person posting anonymously as, "Andrew," called me on it citing his/her attendance at a budget meeting at Jackson Street School that drew only about ten people. Understanding his/her concern I asked Robert Aronson if he'd like to write a guest Redoubt entry outlining his perspective of a budget briefing he'd attended, and he accepted. Below is his accounting of the Finn-Ryan Road School meeting that drew an estimated 200 people.
March 24 2009
While attending last night's special budget meeting held at the Finn-Ryan Road School I did notice an unwarranted sense of optimism imbued by the Mayor, especially with regard to the revenue from parking sanctions and restaurant/hotel taxes as if the success of the downtown was sure as gravity. It is however transient, the result of individuals blessed with skills and enterprise that combined with providence. Necessity being the mother of invention the BID was demanded, debated by those blessed merchants and passed by the City Council all in favor with the exception of eldest and most experienced member. The market demand will determine if the downtown will remain a destination or not.
I did spend a decade at my business on Pleasant Street and when my landlord doubled my rent I simply had to move my business and its employees to another more welcoming and affordable location. At the meeting a minority of civic minded spendthrifts were distributed among the largely skeptical crowd and exhorted, "if we all just chip in and pull together we can get through this." Their logic being all is within reach and it will only cost on average something comparable to a morning cup of coffee.
This witches brew of a budget combines all of the uncurbed undertakings with a pervasive sense of entitlement and produces a dangerous distillate. It would seem to get uncorked every other election cycle around St. Padraig's day. Sample a bit and you can share in the delirious vision of the city. Temporary amnesia sets in regarding budget constraints when any new spending for a multitude of city projects is being considered. Most questions of financial consequences are swept aside with the statement that savings will be realized moving forward.
Remember the phone system that was urgently needed. How about the new fleet of emergency apparatus to park inside a vast multi million dollar fire fighting complex (not a combined public safety building as in Easthampton) no doubt funded in part with federal grant money. Brigades of firefighters were hired with post 911/FDNY first responder hysteria money as shoveled out by a xenophobic Congress. But the fleets have now been determined to be inadequate. Additional specialized equipment to climb steep icy driveways in some very remote but highly unacceptable future are the remedy to this deficiency in fire suppression capability. A mere half of a million dollars might preclude this unfortunate possibility.
I did take the opportunity to ask the Mayor how many people actually work for the city compared to ten years ago. The Mayor responded she didn't know, "its hard to find that information," but she was sure that it was less. The conversation then turned to the verboten general tax burden. I asked the Mayor about the CPA for funding a weed eradication program at Fitzgerald Lake (by the use of chemical herbicides). This single expense epitomizes what's dysfunctional in this city. But those specifics weren't on the table. Tonight's topic was going to be only the general fund not the multifaceted budget process that kills by a thousand cuts.
So let us perform a reality check. The current climate includes circulating rumors of school closure, public safety cutbacks and shrinking services while recently funding projects or programs demanded by well intentioned enthusiastic advocates of special interest and public servants. In this particular case those tormented by the presence of invasive plants and concerned about a lack of biodiversity in an artificial lake. This twelve thousand dollar expenditure is dwarfed by comparison to others but is unmatched as marker of extravagance as to its value in securing the votes of a small coalition alarmed over a swamp being invaded by those pesky buck thorn plants and reeds incalculable. This invasion was initiated and has been progressing over the course of some forty thousand years according to fossilized records. Any reasonable person could ask, is all this governance effective? This is a bit like the convict condemned to death and as he was led to the rickety gallows he asked the hangman, "is it safe?"
Now this is the information that is easy to find usually in any decent newspaper. Homes set alight by smoking materials continue to burn beyond repair or to the ground. The dispossessed still die from exposure. I know some of my customers visiting the city actually became ambivalent about returning for any reason when they were welcomed with solicitations for money from people in the street or a fine from an overzealous parking division. Hike a few of the city's conservation areas and observe the invasive plants, they will be soldiering on setting out runners or seeds just as sure as there's gravity.
It's irrelevant whether you favor small, less active or larger, intrusive governance. The predictable consequences of exporting vital industries and employment for three decades and fighting a war on two fronts since 2003 have hit home in combination with an international financial crisis. The theory and practice of good judgment and efficacy in expenditures has always been incumbent upon public officials. Call me old fashioned but I trust that the taxpayers' scrutiny is going to elevate as the request for an override is advanced and that awareness will put an end to some of the absurdities not just in expenditures but in audacious expectations.
We all can look forward each spring to a harvest of maple syrup, a fresh crop of potholes and the perennial tax levy override rumors wrapped in education cutbacks. Each election cycle sees the carving of pumpkins, some of the same enlarged potholes now camouflaged by leaves and even the same candidates campaigning with nearly identical agendas of worthy and wonderful works that are being contemplated, Sláinte!
