City Finances

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Gerald Neily

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Aug 14, 2010, 8:29:14 AM8/14/10

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Two events yesterday concerning the operation of the city's swimming pools illustrate my point about money to run the city.

One is that Mayor SRB had to bawl out the City Council for attempting to rewrite the city budget they had only passed a few weeks ago. The City Council had decided in June that money for swimming pools in August was an expendable non-priority, compared to all their other projects like the Charm City Circulator. The City Council members thus tried to change their mind on the budget yesterday because it finally occurred to them that weather in August gets hot (although it was only in the upper 70s yesterday). They wanted to take the money from the city's "rainy day fund", which in part goes for snow removal. City council members apparently now believe that it does not snow in winter, just as in June they believed that August did not get hot. This is apparently how the City Council process works.

The other event yesterday is that the public quickly donated $675,000 to the Baltimore Community Foundation to pay for keeping the pools open. The public apparently is willing to donate money to the city to pay for some government functions as long as the money is kept away from the City Council and their budget process.

Of course, the public keeps re-electing these people, so one wonders what they really think.