Eureka City Council Mulls 10% Cuts
The Eureka City Council has requested all city departments find savings in their budgets of 10%. I understand they'll be discussing the proposed city budget, including the 10% cuts, at tonight's city council meeting.
Pro- Measure O tax extension advocate, Leo Sears, sent out an e-mail the other day rallying folks to go to the council meeting and voice their opposition to the across the board cuts. The reasoning being that while 10% cuts for all departments might seem fair, citizens of Eureka want law enforcement fully funded. Thus, other departments should take the back seat.
Interesting that the forces over at Tuluwat Examiner opposed to the tax extension use a similar argument: That not enough of the money raised is being used for law enforcement. This echoes Sears' argument from his recent e-mail:
"I don’t believe that we passed measure O for it to be spread as an equal layer over the entire budget. The council’s commitment was to give public safety the very highest of priorities, and I don’t know of one piece of O’s publicity that didn’t say “vote to support public safety.”
It will be interesting to see who shows up to argue what at tonight's meeting. Will we be able to separate those opposed to Measure O's extension from those in support?
Addendum: I try to avoid using names here of people who send me private communications. In the case of Leo Sears and the e-mail he sent out, it was sent to "undisclosed recipients", or bcc'd. Since it came via an apparent e-mail list, I figure it's fair enough to include his name.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 7:20 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
The Zoo is still more important than Public Safety? The Chamber of Commerce as well? Or is this just a way to scare people into raising taxes? It's not hard to see the special interests behind this effort.
Everybody has their special interests. Many people appreciate the various things the city provides and takes care of.
Funny thing is, much of the reason the city has less and less money is because of increasing public employee pension health care costs. I believe Calpers is poised to take even more from the general fund in the next few years- simply to cover retirement benefits.
You're not getting more public safety. You're just paying more for the public safety employees' retirement and health benefits, at everybody else's expense.
I might add, that comment I just responded to is pretty much the same argument some opposed to extending the sales tax are using. Did that comment come from someone who opposes the tax extension, or someone supporting?
"You're just paying more for the public safety employees' retirement and health benefits, at everybody else's expense."
You have to pay the protection money or suffer the consequences. Nobody said the mob was fair.
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