DCMP on 
Dana Porter on 
The City of Columbus has started the initial phase of outlining a 2010 budget. I don’t know about other cities, but our process is laborious. It’s long and changes all the time.
From The Columbus Dispatch.
Columbus’ municipal belt is going to stay tightened for the foreseeable future, city officials said tonight.
At the first of 10 budget hearings scheduled over the next eight weeks, finance officials and City Council members said a 2010 spending plan helped by a higher income-tax rate still is being battered by a weak economy.
If you ever want to have some fun, you can probably go to the reader comments of your local newspaper. In The Columbus Dispatch, some comments are well reasoned whether from the left or the right, some are from people I suspect are hurting in a tough economy and are well intentioned, but some are from people who have no clue and are downright hilarious. Here’s one regarding the 2010 Columbus budget debate.
I still don’t see Our Idiot Mayor out there trying to lobby any companies into the Columbus area to create jobs!!?? I guess he just wants to do photo ops at ribbon cuttings fo [sic] rehabbed homes in Columbus. Vote his butt out next election!!!
From me.
Evidently, [author] you misunderstand Coleman’s job. It’s not to bring jobs to the Columbus Area. Columbus derives it’s local taxes only from those businesses and people within the city limits.
It collects its revenues from people who live in Columbus, hence rehabbing houses like the ones on Bryden Road and in Italian Village. Plus, businesses that are actually in Columbus and the people who work for them, hence the Arena District, Netjets, and Columbus Commons.
Plus, Columbus has continued its AAA bond rating in 2009 despite a recession.
From Wikipedia.
Since 2000, Mayor Coleman has spent $54 million less than budgeted. At the same time, he boosted the city’s spending on police and fire services from 63 percent of the city operating budget to 71 percent in 2005. Coleman has also cut more than $190 million from continuation budgeting levels since 2000, despite increases in costs for medical insurance, wages and Workers Compensation. His record of fiscal management has protected Columbus’ AAA Bond Rating – the highest possible credit rating.”
Mayor Coleman plans to keep the promises he made during the campaign for a new .25 percent tax increase. From The Dispatch again.
Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s $655 million proposed operating budget for 2010 would reopen recreation centers that were closed during this year’s budget crisis, restore yard-waste and bulk-waste collection that was scaled back, and end layoffs and furloughs that reduced the government payroll.
Evdiently, he means to keep his promises to the citzens of Columbus.
If you have read this blog at all, you know that I have disagreed with Coleman on many of the decisions he has made including those concerning the city budget. I strongly disagreed with the slashes he made to the social service safety net that guards our most vulnerable citizens.
Still, regardless of your personal opinion of Mayor Coleman, to suggest that he has not governed this city in a fiscally responsible manner is to participate in some form of a fiscal fantasy.
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