Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex
That said, I have no doubt that picking some of the highest profile most-likely-to-outrage things to cut is part of the game. That is always part of the game. If a city needs to cut $100 because they can't raise taxes then it will come out of the police or fire department budget, not the secretarial Christmas party budget. You cut the things that piss off the most people because that is how you get them to give permission to increase revenues.
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As someone who has 1) assisted the library manager regarding budget cuts, 2) been part of a project to ferret out what areas can be cut, and 3) actually read our budgets when they are introduced, I can safely say that this is not the case in our city. Last winter's Christmas party was nothing compared to the year before and it was noticeable - I'm sure not because they saved a ton of money, but because it shows our commitment to cutting the fat.
Police and Fire do not get cut, so the library takes hits, including a 75% book/media budget cut. No joke. We understand, since we don't want to cut Police or Fire either. We're also closing our branches for an extra day each week.
I believe that our city has no real way to raise taxes - we get the county sales tax and the state money - so perhaps that's why there are no controversial cuts.
We only had to cut our city budget by 5% (this is only regarding sales tax revenues, as no one is even doing the numbers regarding the state shortfalls yet, and we'll probably have to cut more later). This is nothing near the 40% that Alex mentioned. If our city had to cut 40%, it would be hard to keep the library open at all. Would I take to the streets in outrage? I don't think so, mostly because I'd sound like an idiot.
I'm not going to bury my head in the sand and pretend that money grows on trees.