If you are in Metro Council District 26, the chances are that you probably received Brent Ackerson’s 26th District Spring Newsletter in the mail.
If you are not from the district, I regret to say that a copy was not yet up on Ackerson’s web-page at http://www.louisvilleky.gov/MetroCouncil/Members/26/Home.htm.
Anyway, the four pages mostly discuss such mundane but important matters such as grass cutting and street paving and junk pick up. (Brent and his assistant Jeff Noble really did well on the grass cutting issues) However, the most interesting part is Ackerson’s survey on page three asking constituents for feedback on budget priorities.
Readers are to rank budget priorities and to give three, brief essay answers. The ranking is from 1 (most important) to 14 (least important).
The one essay question I found to be most interesting was:
“With the Mayor proposing drastic cuts in the city’s budget,
do you have any specific suggestions as to where or what
should be cut from the Metro Budget?”
Unless I have missed a story in the Courier-Journal, Fischer actually proposing drastic cuts in the budget is news. Ackerson has shed some foreshadowing for June.
A brief review of the Courier-Journal website and blogosphere evidenced no previous report of any such information.
In January, Fischer talked about how tight the city budget is, but again, I saw nothing in the Courier-Journal archives nor the reliable blogs (including Rick’s) that Fischer has yet publicly proposed drastic cuts.
Newsworthiness aside that the mayor is proposing deep cuts, Ackerson’s questions about priorities are pretty tough ones to answer.
Whatever answer will be akin to the line in the movie “The Last Boy Scout” where offended husband Joe Hallenbeck (played by Bruce Willis) asks the adulterer Mike Matthews “Head or gut?” Matthews chose getting hit in the gut . . . and then Matthews got blown up in a car bomb.
It appears that it is going to be painful this year when it comes to the Louisville Metro budget.