On Hard Choices (The Cuts)

Budget cuts, not a tax hike. That's what the Memphis City Council wanted when it balked at filling a $34.5 million gap in funding for Memphis City Schools last month.

Mayor A C Wharton likely won't give them enough guidance on specific cuts when the Council meets Jan. 12.

In a Dec. 30 letter sent to Council Chair Harold Collins and two other councilmembers, Wharton notes that he will come forth with several short-term recommendations to address the issue of school funding on Feb. 1. (As an aside, the State of the City Address is slated for this Wednesday at noon.)

As WMC's Kontji Anthony noted Monday, those short-term recommendations might include:

Short-term goals:
1. Hiring and travel freezes
2. Filling only essential job vacancies
3. Functional consolidation of city and county fire services
4. Reducing overtime
5. Consolidating divisions
6. Consolidating and duplicate functions

Quick note, the city and county fire services are already consolidating some operations; Wharton recommends completing that process. There are also more than six short-term recommendations. But I digress.

To be sure, the City Council didn't give Wharton much of a choice except to look at the bigger picture. (It passed a resolution that banned using a tax hike to pay for MCS funding this year.)

With that said, Wharton knows an opportunity when he sees one and the "Memphis: City of Choice" plan is a grand and eloquent vision. However, if you cut through the language, there are some hard questions that are left.

For instance, will those short-term recommendations add up to $34.5 million? That's debatable, which is why the clamor to rescind the 3 percent pay raise for city employees ($11 million in the FY2010 Budget) likely won't go away. (Fox13)

Wharton doesn't mention those pay raises at all.

Perhaps, he didn't because the lion share of the raise would go public safety employees (i.e. police and fire), the literal third rail in Memphis politics.

(AN ASIDE, I'm under the impression that hourly workers would get that budgeted raise, and speaking of hourlies, when FedEx cut back salaries last year, it didn't affect the pay of its hourly workforce. Just sayin for those looking for guidance.)

And here's another question: given the fiscal realities, and the fact that MPD is the city's largest and most costly division, can the city actually afford to hire more police officers?

*MDN. CA. WMC. EyeNews.


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