The City Council is scheduled Tuesday (June 2) to address the significant shortfall anticipated in the budget that the current members approved last fall.
They need to look beyond the current budget. Let's see what they intend to do in light of the proposal on the state level to increase local governments' share of pensions from about 7 percent to 11 percent in a couple of years.
Finance Commissioner Ivins supposedly has ideas about how to cut the public safety budget without the police and fire cuts that Public Safety Commissioner Kim is putting forth as a necessary evil.
Police and fire officials, meanwhile, went door-to-door over the weekend, talking to citizens and leaving material urging people to oppose the possible cuts. Didn't see anything in their literature about freezing or cutting salaries or benefits.
The expired contracts for most city employees could hold some of the solution to the budget problems -- or they can continue to build in expenses that will jack up property taxes.