Mayor Prepares To Fight Flat Budget Cuts
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 10/28/08 @ 3:51 pm - Filed Under City Council, Featured
Word is the city attorney is coming to city council to inform them that they do not have the statutory authority to cut the budget bottom line by 3% as some councilmembers (and myself) wanted to do. In other words the city attorney is insisting that the council cut the individual line items themselves.
I’m not going to try and play lawyer here and determine who’s right but let me just say that this is going to kick things up a notch. The council could clearly cut 3% from every line item if they chose to and the mayor may be forcing that upon them.
At this point I feel like council should accept the mayor’s legal position and then proceed to cut 5% from the budget item by item. I would also take JQ Taxpayer’s half-serious approach of gutting the entire 9th floor in the process. It would surely be a symbolic vote as undoubtedly the mayor would use his veto power to send it back to council. (Update: Councilman Tom Smith said during the budget meeting that the mayor cannot veto the budget ordinance.)
That’s really the problem here - we’re at gridlock. The mayor is unwilling to cut a single nickel from the budget but council probably doesn’t have the 6 votes to override a veto. Something’s gotta give…
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2 Responses to “Mayor Prepares To Fight Flat Budget Cuts”
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I certainly hope that our City Council does the right thing and cuts at least 3% from the budget.
I am also disappointed in the Mayor’s office; this is an irresponsible way to handle this situation.
If I were on City Council I would simply vote AGAINST the budget as presented and tell the Mayor that I would vote in favor of a budget that is at least 3% lower then the one submitted.
Mike Sylvester
Our fine city of Fort Wayne might get with the program and cut their annual budget 30% this 2009-2010.
That starts with downtown.