The folks over at Publius Blog have done some nice analysis of Mayor RJ Berry’s recently-unveiled budget and the prognosis is good. By way of summarizing, the budget “does not raise taxes and minimizes cuts in services.”
Certainly, it would make sense to eliminate or at least dramatically reduce the payouts for unused sick days. This is the kind of thing that should be addressed regardless of the budgetary climate.
Of course, the Mayor’s budget has a long way to go before it becomes law and there are policies like the unused sick days issue or, say, contracting out garbage collection, that might be helpful additions. Anyway, tell your Councilor what you think.
While Mayor Berry is trying, he still has a long way to go. The blog, “Eye on Albuquerque” has plenty to say on this subject. They just published an article about the city’s cost for E85 fuel. Read about it here. http://eyeonalbuquerque.blogspot.com/2010/04/e85-eco-fool.html
Although the “Eye” doesn’t publish daily, it does provide an insiders view of our city. One of the most telling aspects of the blog is in the comments. Seems lots of city insiders air their complaints which often includes waste of our tax dollars.
By the way, I’m in no way affiliated with the “Eye”, am just a fan.