It Was Mayor Coleman’s Idea
By Mitch Berg
Last Friday, I wrote about Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Duluth’s problems as it comes to money.
And Saint Paul mayor Chris Coleman was quoted:
“If the leadership of the Republican Party wants to come and look through my budget, tell me how many cops they want me to lay off, tell me how many fire stations they want me to close, tell me how many libraries I’m supposed to close. The fact of the matter is they’re governing in ignorance. They don’t know what we do. They have a mythology of what cities do. They have a mythology of where we spend our money.”
And in the “debate” between Rep. John Lesch and candidate Greg Copeland on the Marty Owings “Capitol Conversations” show last March, Lesch asked for exactly the same thing – meaning that we’ve had requests up and down the entire DFL hierarchy for Republicans to come in and give input on the city budget!
Well, what a great place to reach across the aisle!
I think it’d be a fine idea to take some copies of the City’s operating budget, sit down with a bunch of businesspeople and taxpayers, and bang through it, line by line, and dig out all the waste. Just so that we and the Mayor could fully understand each others’ positions.
I mean, I’m not talking “the leadership”, per se; I think some Saint Paul businesspeople and taxpayers would be just fine, although I wouldn’t mind having some of the legislative budget leadership there either.
But I think getting 10-15 copies of the operating budget and some budget hawks together – say, at O’Gara’s some evening – with an eye toward educating each other, would be a fine idea.
Hmmm.
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:41 am
Funny how when oil company profits are announced, the left is unanimous in demanding legal tax incentives be stripped away, even though the profit margin of 6 % is way less than many other industries, like computer companies, for example.
And state and city budgets are expected to inflate on a predictable basis with no heed to cost control. Strange world indeed.
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:50 am
What does the so-called “human rights director” earn? The man who banned dago sandwiches.
May 23rd, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Chuck;
Say it ain’t so. He banned dago sandwich? Having partial Italian heritage, I am outraged at this clear case of discrimination!
May 23rd, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Hopefully they have retained French fries. With zero transfats of course.
May 23rd, 2011 at 2:03 pm
First he bans stuffed bunnies from city hall. Then he harrassed a local business that served Dago sandwiches. You tax dollars at work.
May 23rd, 2011 at 2:09 pm
I have a sharp pencil. I know where I can borrow a green eyeshade.
I’m in. When?
May 23rd, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Wonder if they’d ban the Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich. It’s a trifecta of discrimination. It discriminates against hillbillies, good looking women and people of color. (It also has a cheese sauce slathered over the top…a no-no in the command and control heath care world of teh Liberal.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Brown
May 23rd, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Mmm the Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich. Turkey and bacon. More proof that there is a God, and he loves us.
May 23rd, 2011 at 4:13 pm
“Mmm the Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich. Turkey and bacon.”
Can you get it slathered in Cheez Whiz?
May 23rd, 2011 at 4:39 pm
The “hot brown”? This goes into my file for recreation as a foo-foo pizza.
May 24th, 2011 at 5:35 am
They have a mythology of where we spend our money.
If it was their money they were spending no one would give a @#$%.