The word I get from denizens at city hall is that there are a lot of curled toes amongst city workers and politicos. The deficit for this year just keeps growing and growing. It now stands around $23 million according to my sources and it won't get any better. Add to that the bad news for next fiscal year and you have a classic meltdown occurring.
Mayor Chavez and the city council have engaged in an orgy of spending over the last seven years and that has caught up to them too. I feel sorry for the next Mayor trying to deal with all of this. I also think that Mayor Marty may opt out of another run. He has never had to deal with a tanking economy before like I did when I served. The $22 million dollar deficit Chavez left me when I took office in 1998 was painful and now he will visit that upon a new Mayor at the end of next year.
Certainly, it would be unfair to pin all of this on the Mayor and Council, but the double digit budget increases every year didn't make it better.
Speaking of curled toes, I was astonished to read a story in the Journal this morning about all the old boys who run the Catholic Church threatening the members of their flock who voted for Obama. Can that be conducive to gathering in more of the faithful?
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