Suttle is doing exactly the same thing President Obama is doing - specifically, continuing to blame his predecessor. Â Apparently that's kind of a Democrat thing.icejammer wrote:You are correct, it should have been paid in the past, but that doesn't change anything, your reply is nothing but a strawman.joeglow wrote:That said, even if you want to trot out this BS excuse, you are essentially admitting this should have been paid for in the past and, therefore, the increases in the past for other items were probably should not have happened. Thus, that still means there are costs that can be cut without increasing the budget by 11 freaking percent.
I would like to hear what you think should be cut to offset this increase. Hmmm?
What should be done to offset the increase?
1. Start at the top: Â Suttle and his entire administration take a 25% pay cut - including benefits & pension. Â Further, 25% of his administration is cut. Â You don't ADD staff and INCREASE salaries during a budget crisis. Â How stupid is that? Â Suttle needs to - for the first time in his political career - show good faith by himself taking what he's trying to force on everybody else.
2. The bloated OPD and OFD Union Contracts absolutely HAVE TO BE redone. Â Doesn't matter if it takes a Nebraska Supreme Court fight. Â Let it happen. Â Those bloated publicly-funded pensions are bleeding the city dry, and they HAVE to be changed.
3. Make the QWest Center pay its own bills! Â The place is making money. Â In fact, they're making a LOT of money. Â But they're doing creative accounting in order to appear as though they cannot make their mortgage payments. Â And who is inevitably holding the sack? Â Taxpayers.
These three things alone would save the City of Omaha tens of millions of dollars per year. Â Further, it would not be a band-aid, but a long-term correction.
After that, you go through every single expenditure of the City with a fine-toothed comb. Â Eliminate duplication and waste. Â There's no question that there are millions of dollars per year that are absolutely wasted.