Thursday, December 10, 2009

Egad!

So the latest numbers I am hearing from Albuquerque's City Hall are that the deficit for this year will be somewhere between 26 and 40 million dollars. Gasp! And next year the gap will be at least $50 million.

This is not pocket change and some draconian measures seem to be in order. The only advice I can give to the new Mayor is that he do the hard work in the first hundred days of his tenure. This will mean whacking larges amounts of money from the funds that the city gives to the Albuquerque School System, non profit groups and the labor unions. That last item will require some real deft negotiating. Those fat contracts Marty Chavez gave out in hopes of getting support from the police and firemen's unions are really going to cause problems.


Meanwhile, the legislature is considering suing the Governor over the budget battles that have taken place as the state's revenues continue to meltdown. I can think of about a hundred things that are more important to do than that. This reminds me of a description of human behavior I read last night in a sci fi novel. It is one of the Frankenstein monster who was created with all good intentions. Except he ends up throwing little girls in the river. He wants to be better, but it is just not in him. Sounds like the legislature. Yuk!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You may be right, you're certainly more knowledgeable about these matters than I, but aren't you the Grinch?

This will mean whacking larges [sic] amounts of money from the funds that the city gives to the Albuquerque School System, non profit groups and the labor unions.

You left out the orphanage, I hear they're getting extra gruel these days.

As long as the city fixes your pothole, right?

Why the schools, non-profits, police and fire? On the face of it, that seems like the most important stuff the city does. How about some discussion. Inform us.