Moondogs

The Ghost of Ronald Reagan

01/15/10 9:05 PM

“There’s no more fat in the budget” says Mayor

I read today Mayor Bartlett has announced there is no more fat in the city budget. 1 Mayor Bartlett is quoted as saying “… if anyone believes there is still fat in the city government, they should know it has been cut”. This is good news. The tax money collected from the citizens of Tulsa is no longer going to waste. Tulsa’s TEA Party members, rejoice. You now have the city government you always wanted.

Since the election of St. Ronny, there hasn’t been a politician run for office that didn’t pledge to cut taxes and spending. I’m glad the City of Tulsa has gotten the job done and cut all the pork from the budget.

On the other hand…

In this same article the Mayor has said that there would have to be cuts in salaries for Police and Fire Union members, or there would have to be cuts in staffing levels — AKA Layoffs. This when our city suffered a record number of homicides last year. 2 Police aren’t the only city employees with their jobs on the line. Firefighters are also going to suffer job cuts if the present city commission can’t come up with some more cash.

There was hope this week when the Tulsa Authority for the Recovery of Energy (TARE) considered using funds generated by the trash to energy plant. 3 Funds from the authority are currently used to discount Tulsan’s trash collection fees. This was nixed in a meeting this week by the board, of which Mayor Bartlett is a member. He was quoted as saying “the … request is completely outside the TARE board’s responsibilities”

The View from My Porch

On the one hand, I applaud the Mayor’s pronouncement that there is no longer any fat in the budget though I’m sure there are many who would take issue with that statement. I think graft and greed in any governmental body is deplorable. We elect officials to office, City, County, State and National, to carry out the will of the people in the most cost effective way possible. I also know that there is no prefect system and that where government is spending money, all for good reasons, there will someone trying to scam the system. It’s human nature.

On the other hand, to lay the responsibility of fixing a budget crisis on city employees is a travesty. The Tulsa city government created this crisis either through willful neglect, inaction and or poor choices. Forecasting city revenue shortfalls isn’t so hard when our national economy has been in decline for more than two years.

While Ronny pledged to cut taxes and spending, he presided over a gargantuan spending spree that we’re still paying for today

I say if the city doesn’t have enough money to pay its Police and Firefighters, what does it spend its money on? I say Fire and Police protection are paramount to the safety and well being of all our citizens and should be first in line for funding.

I say if there raise taxes to keep our Police and Firefighters. I don’t go to work wearing a Kevlar vest and I don’t run INTO burning buildings. God bless our Police and Firefigters for doing what they do with what little they’re given. Even Ronny would vote for that.