Why I Voted for the Budget

Sorry this is late; the budget vote was on December 5, and I've been pretty busy since then.

As Inigo Montoya has said: To sum up:

We went into the Board meeting with the OFA position and the Public Defender position cut. Most of us didn't want to keep it that way, but we had spent a lot of time and effort finding equivalent cuts elsewhere in the budget, with no success.

Kay Stuligross made the recommendation that we give the Management and Confidential workers (mostly, non-union county workers) a raise. They haven't had on in five years, and during that time we've cut their departments and made their jobs harder each year. To do that, she moved that we exceed the 2% tax cap. I seconded the motion.

In the discussion that followed, I tried to make it clear that the motion would only begin the process for choosing to exceed the tax cap. It wouldn't commit us to it, and it wouldn't even commit us to using the money for the raises – we could use it, instead (or in addition), to reinstate the two positions, or anything else we thought was important.

Exceeding the tax cap requires a local law, and that requires public notice and a public hearing. So if Kay's motion had passed, we would have ceased debate on the budget, scheduled a public hearing, and voted on it at the mid-month meeting. If it passed there, we would continue debate on the budget, but with the opportunity to spend over the 2% cap.

The motion gained the votes of the majority of Board members, but in a result reminicent of the 2000 Presidential election, the weighted votes of the minority won out and the motion failed.

So we were back to the budget we had started the morning with. After a bit more debate, the budget passed – not unanimously, but comfortably.

I voted for the budget even though it cut a position I feel strongly should be continued. Voting against the budget would not have re-instated that position. My vote was, for the most part, an acknowledgement of Rich Murphy and his Budget Committee, and Treasurer Dan Crowell. They worked tirelessly to create a budget we could live with and, despite the massive hole that the Manor subsidy started them out in, did an excellent job.

Now – anyone have a holocaust cloak?

By the way – the mid-month meeting (the first, I think, since January) is on Monday, December 17, at 1:30 in the Board chambers.