The news about the budget, of course, isn’t good. There are all sorts of stories now, almost everywhere you look, about the draconian cuts that are being considered. You can look here, here and here. I warned everyone how bad it would be, but even I didn’t expect we’d be laying animals off.
There are two town hall budget meetings remaining, one of which is at White Rock Lake on June 25. If you have a couple of hours, it will be worth attending. It won’t necessarily be any fun, but for those of you who aren’t familiar with how the city works, it will be informative. (And I’m probably going to be there – stop by and say hello.) You can also take a look at what is being called the draft budget, as well as the budget presentation, all 57 pages of it. The good stuff starts on page 25 of the latter – cutting libraries and rec centers and eliminating unnamed senior services. Those are called, oh so euphemistically, “lower priority services.” I don’t blame you if you don’t want to look at the draft budget; I don’t want to, either. But I’ll steel myself and report back.
Finally, a word from councilwoman Angela Hunt, who urges anyone who attends the meetings to come with a plan: “If there is a service that’s being cut that you would like to keep in the budget, please tell me how you propose to fund the service (is there something else you propose to cut?).”
