The last public forum for budget-related discussions is tomorrow night at Lincoln High, from 6:00 to 8:00pm. If you have something to say, it's an excellent chance to be heard.
I've been told that one of the recent public meetings only had 11 participants. That's an annoyingly low number, but it isn't all that surprising. There are an awful lot of people in this town who seem to enjoy grumbling, but not in the fora where their voices can very directly be heard. It is a very frustrating problem for City officials.
Then again, Lincoln's officials haven't exactly bred trust in this sort of process over the years. Take the Comprehensive Plan public meetings from a few years ago. I closely followed the Plan creation process. It was very disappointing to see how few of the public's specific suggestions made their way into the final product. The process felt designed to simulate a participatory atmosphere, rather than actually being participatory.
Maybe that's (part of) the reason why more people haven't taken the opportunity to be active in helping to shape the next budget. Or maybe many people are realists, and they know that the thing they most want axed from the budget simply isn't going to be cut. Indeed, there are lots of budget items that will stick around, whatever the public's opinion of them. For example, many items are required by Federal law. In other cases, the public is screaming to "cut the fat", but the budget item is already down to skin and bones.
Or maybe folks are waiting around for the next LPS budget meeting. After all, Mayor Beutler has all but said, "They're the ones taking most of your property tax dollar. Quit picking on us and give the folks at LPSDO a good grilling!"
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