Mayor unfairly attacks schools with budget cuts, still isn't honest about numbers

According to the Herald, the Mayor is making 70 percent of the personnel cuts from the School Department when their budget is only about 35 percent of the overall budget. Why does the Mayor dislike schools, education and enhancing intelligence? This is just another vindictive move by a thin skinned Menino who is mad at the teachers union for standing up to him and calling his bluff.

As far as the mounted unit goes, the Mayor and the City Council would have half the money they need per year alone if they had not spent over $300,000 fighting for the legal right to do their business behind closed doors. Further, the Mayor just gave away 2.5 million dollars in property owned by the taxpayers in Dorchester for the Kroc Center last fall to the BRA for free, which then sold that property to the Kroc Center for the 2.5 million dollars. That would have funded the horses for almost 4 years.

Finally, you know you can't trust these guys and their budget numbers when they keep dipping into the rainy day fund and it keeps growing! I confirmed with the City budget office this week the numbers that I had been reading. If you go back in the archives to the budget last year at this time, Lisa Signori said they were taking $35 million out of the rainy day fund which was $110 million dollars. Well, with my math degree 110 minus 35 is $75 million dollars left over. But here we are a year later, the worst financial year since the depression allegedly and now the rainy day fund is $120 million dollars!!! This year we are going to take $45 million dollars out of this 'rainy day fund' which keeps growing despite these tough times. In January of 2007 the fund was only 63 million dollars.

I got an update from the City yesterday, and their latest figures go to the end of March and they still have $929 million dollars in the bank. Sure seems like we could afford some horse feed with that.