Could Cincinnati City Council's new budget kill you?

The short answer to this question is yes it can. Taking police officers and firefighters off the streets of Cincinnati will not only put the lives of other firefighters and police officers at greater risk, it will put your life at risk as well. Some will say I am over dramatizing this situation, its only a dramatization until someone’s house is on fire or until someone is being robbed, or in need of medical attention.With the potential of seconds making the difference between life and death shouldn’t Cincinnati City Council look at every other avenue to make cuts before taking police officers and firefighters off the streets.

Where can the cuts be made? Well at the very least if council is willing to cut the pay of every city worker by 6 days the Council members themselves should be willing to do the same thing. I think it is terrible leadership on Council’s part if they are not willing to cut their own pay and expect everyone else to take a pay cut. In fact I think it is down right arrogant and pathetic that city leaders expect city workers to bailout the city for its gross mismanagement of funds. When I am elected to Cincinnati Council I will put forth legislation that will cut Cincinnati City Council and their office budget by 20%. That is the least Council can do to acknowledge their poor management of funds, and be leaders in cutting costs in helping to balance the budget.

After reading the article in the Cincinnati Enquirer about our city pools not being used it is amazing how some on council still have this nonsensical and insane idea that all pools should remain open. If Councilwoman Cole can look into anyone in this city with a straight face and give a good reason why it is more important to keep a pool that has less than 100 swimmers a day open rather than keeping more police and firefighters on the streets than she clearly doesn’t have her priorities straight and should resign immediately. She clearly should not be on Council let alone the Chairwoman of the Finance Committee because she has shown how she intends on leading this city and how competent she is of making the decisions necessary to lead us through this financial crisis.

We need real leaders in Cincinnati not leaders like Councilman Harris that call our Police and Firefighters "big, fat, spoiled brats". Why should those that put their lives on the line every day take a pay cut because our Council can’t manage our money? Why not listen to our Firefighters, Police Officers, which say they are willing to make cuts without taking personnel off the streets? We should be using that as a starting point at the least rather than starting out with reducing the number of people that are protecting us.

The fact is Cincinnati City Council has to make budget cuts, but we have to prioritize those cuts. Public Safety has to be number one. There is no gray area with this issue. If we have any hope for redevelopment, and population growth we must feel safe in this city. We must make hard decisions like closing pools that are severely under used, and cutting programs that don’t work and that are already being done at the state level. We also must have a redeployment plan that increases businesses and attracts people to Cincinnati. The budget just like this election is going to determine the direction of our city for the next decade. We have seen what the current Council members have accomplished, isn’t it time we start holding them accountable for the job they have done and elect people to Council that have the people of Cincinnati rather than their political careers as their number one priority?