Let’s see if we have this right: The mayor of Everett is under fire for keeping a campaign promise?
A leader of the union that represents seven of the 17 city workers laid off amid $3.4 million in budget cuts claims Mayor Ray Stephanson’s action is politically motivated because he manufactured a budget crisis during last year’s election campaign and now must follow through.
The trouble with that theory is that the budget crisis is real, and it’s long-term. City spending, compared with revenues, wasn’t sustainable, and would run the city into the red by 2006 even if all of the city’s $24 million reserve were used to balance the budget. The best answer for the city’s current and future fiscal health is to bring spending in line with revenues now.
That’s what citizens expect their government to do, and it’s how voters have demanded government function through the tax-slashing initiatives they have approved. Tapping into the reserve to balance the budget only puts off, and perhaps worsens, cuts and job losses down the road. And if Tim Eyman’s initiative to cut local property taxes by 25 percent qualifies for the November ballot and becomes law, that reserve will be needed to help bridge the annual loss of another $8 million.
Job losses hurt, in the private and public sector. But sometimes they’re necessary to balance the books. The charge that the city’s layoffs were sparked by politics rather than difficult fiscal realities simply doesn’t hold water.
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