First, thanks to Eva Young for posting the substantive information from the DFL Stonewall questionnaire. Second, thanks to Lisa McDonald for her substantive answers.
There's something in Lisa's responses that mirrors those I've heard from many candidates, and which troubles me. I'd love candidates on this list to reconcile the problem I see. Lisa writes: > 3) What are your priorities for the office you are > running for? > > . Public safety. Restoring our police and fire departments to full > force. > > . Moderate budgets. Making sure our citizens' tax dollars are > spent wisely. These are two goals I'm sure most Minneapolitans support. However, police and fire costs are a MAJOR part of the city's budget. I'm not sure I see how fulfilling the first priority - restoring police and fire numbers, which would mean adding 150 cops to get back to Clinton-era numbers, for example - allows you to achieve the second, a moderate budget. To elaborate, 150 news cops at $60,000 per (my guess of salary, benefits and equipment and administrative costs) equals $9 million a year. (If you pick $40,000, that's $6 million per year.) And the above figures don't include cost of getting the fire department to full force. For context, the city gets about $180 million from the property tax, and our state local-government aid was cut $37 million from fiscal year 2004 to 2005. (See http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/city-budget/2005FinancialOverview.pdf) If candidates believe the city needs more cops, they need to say what they are going to cut - or what taxes they are going to raise - to do it. (It would also be nice to have them explain what problems 150 cops, or whatever number they pick, would solve.) I want to emphasize: I am not singling out Lisa for criticism here. At my 8th Ward convention, at least two of the four Council candidates who spoke said the same thing, and I've heard it from candidates in other wards and at the citywide level. So: . Tell us your cops number . Tell us why that number . Tell us what you will cut or tax to balance the books if you decide to spend money that way. Governing the city is about making tough choices. I'd like to see the choices resulting from candidates' principles made plain. David Brauer Kingfield REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
