If No New Taxes, Then What?

By: Mr. Wilson on May 30, 2008
Mayor Beutler is in a tough spot. He's in charge of a City facing a $6 million problem. If he proposes cutting the wrong services, he'll get eaten alive. If he proposes new generating new revenues (ahem, raising taxes), he'll get eaten alive. If he ... well, you get the picture. So what should he do? Actually, that isn't a rhetorical question. The City Council has all but issued a pre-emptive "No!" to a property tax increase. I'm hardly one to complain about government officials refusing to raise taxes. Yet I haven't actually seen any Council members propose any concrete solutions. For that matter, I haven't heard any concrete solutions from anybody. Where do we find $6 million in City government?

Comments

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Gene
May 30, 2008 at 8:26PM

The silence in the comments of this one is funny.

Fletch
May 30, 2008 at 9:40PM

I think, long-term, there are solutions. Short-term, there are really only 2 choices: raise taxes, or cut services.

Whatever gets cut, people will scream bloody murder about if they are affected.

In truth, and I don’t want to pay more, the city gets a smaller chunk of the pie than it used to. I would say they need to go up to some degree (hey, I’m just the messenger), but I don’t think for the full $6 million. There has to be *some* fat that can be cut off of the budget.

Short-term, I think we should expect to pay more, but the council may vote NO just to keep the people happy and stay in power. That’s why I hate politics.

Eric
June 1, 2008 at 2:44AM

I don’t think there’s much fat left to cut. Seriously, people have a lot of expectations concerning city services. What can they cut?

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