WORST BUDGET YEAR EVER!!! The 10 steps we all must go through.
Ok, so you know the routine by now.
1. Mayor declares it the worst budget year ever.
2. Asks agencies except police and fire for drastic cuts. Given Dean’s story that memo should be coming out today. Small agencies are impacted the worst. Police end up with more money for fill in the blank. (My guess is gang prevention is this year’s pick up.) And even if the council votes no, the police will get what they want one way or the other.
3. Some agencies take the assignment seriously, some just play silly reindeer games.
4. The Mayor picks and chooses which items to cut, but all those services that lead to a high quality of life in Madison are cut slightly, not getting needed cost of living increases. Worse yet, many of the programs that could help with our issues in neighborhoods like Meadowood are cut in favor of police services.
5. The non-profits all show up, fighting for their meager crumbs. Yes, even tho the decisions are supposedly now made outside the budget process, if they’re cutting 6% everyone knows who will be getting cut.
6. Mayor whines that the non-profits are just self-serving and he’s tired of listening to the non-profits, despite his recent call for their help. I wonder which Executive Directors rushed forward to kiss his ass.
7. Council falls all over itself cutting $5,000 here and $10,000 there and ignoring substantial cuts (remember the whole “shut Brenda up” incident).
8. Everyone ignores the dirty little secret of the capital budget, but the Mayor seems to be catching on, but still ignoring the consequences:
But Cieslewicz still is open to building a new Downtown library.
9. A MIRACLE!! The Mayor “finds” half a million dollars (the total operating budget is $238M so that’s less than 1%), the world is saved, non-profits get no cola increases, police get more money, most agencies stay relatively the same.
10. Mayor and mayor’s staff congratulate themselves for the hard work they have done and we all move on til next year when we lather, rinse and repeat.
Yes, this is how we ended up with bus fare increases, despite the news that we have an additional $900,000 coming from stimulus money for operating expenses for Madison Metro for 2010 and the decreased fuel costs.
Could it be that the Mayor has cried wolf one too many times? Could this be the year that all the threats are real? Or will it be more of the same where the sacred cows get everything they want and less favored agencies make valiant attempts and we end up with one staff person (low on the rung) doing the job of three?
This is an absurd process, with absurd outcomes. Interspersed with ridiculous public displays of hand wringing and attempts to make it look like this is not what is going on. I wonder what funding will be the target this year? And who will suffer as a result? Will the council stand up, or roll over? Who’s the Mayor going to set up as his rival without Zach and I on the council? Will the council be given useful information, or will they again be faced with a treasure hunt of the silliest kind? The next 3 – 4 months will be entertaining and a little sad and scary to watch. So hang on, it should be a wild ride if the council does its job! But we’ll all end up at the bottom of the slip and slide.
