(politicos = entrenched elites including their appointees who spend our money)

I learn from people with whom I disagree. They force me to examine my views, accept new information if appropriate, and sometimes change my views.

In order to have open and helpful dialogue, there has to be a modicum of respect and intelligence on the both sides. Having been to probably 15 council meetings in the last four years, and watched most of them on Ch. 16, I doubt I could serve with most of the council members, past or present.

I just don’t suffer fools gladly. Doubt my take on things? Watch a few meetings. If you can get through the resolutions for Aunt Fannie’s championship quilt, you’re half-way home.

Most of them are gasbags or incredibly partisan in that “gotcha” sense of the word. And they’re way too impressed with themselves. I don’t choose to spend my free time arguing with that kind of goof. The aggravation isn’t worth it.

When I was younger I’d jump head-first into that kind of environment. Now, give me a good round of golf, or a good book, or some time with my kids or at my church, and my spare time is great.

Government demands that we participate, so I try in my own way. I just don’t want to spend 10-20 hours a week with the kid of person who is in the majority on the council.

I don’t mean “majority” in the D or R sense.

It also discourages better candidates fro running. City-County Council members make something like $13-16K a year. Not chump change, but consider: you can’t really make much of a difference unless you’re one of the top two or three in each party. You have to deal with other councillors, too many of whom are functional boobs. You sacrifice maybe 50-60 nights a year for meetings, sometimes more. And your phone rings off the wall.

I could take all of that if I knew I’d work with fellow Councillors, a majority of whom were there for the right reasons and who could add to 20 without taking off their sox. But at the end of the day, I wouldn’t do it for triple the pay. There’s just no shared view of the common good. Or not enough of it.

Sometimes I think we should just stand back and let Ed Treacy and Tom John bloviate on City Council issues. That’s where it ultimately ends up anyway. Cut out the middle men/women.

My cousins are rock-ribbed Reagan republicans. They lament the day Shirley was elected. I read the Muncie paper every day, and let’s just say, in that Republican forum, she has badly mis-managed her plight.

Of course, Muncie has a history of corrupt Democratic mayors, too…Paul Cooley and Big Jim Carey come to mind. But their incumbent seems a failure from afar.

Taxpayer, your question is fair. I don’t run the world, and you’re probably all glad for that. If I did, here’s what I’d cut on the spending side, city-budget wise, since we were mostly talking about city budgets:

We basically nee dot do what schools need to do–eliminate a heavy top tier and shove duties down the ranks to qualified and less-expensive personnel.

We need one, maybe two deputy mayors. And, as a non-monetary comment, we need each of them to be able to speak intelligent English, not jibberish.

We need to cut the command staff at IMPD and IFD.

Wherever possible, let some control go, stop buying expensive equipment, and contract out as many heavy-equipment duties as we can. Heavy equipment is just getting more and more expensive. And our employees don’t generally take very good care of it.

Start assessing development impact fees for all new commercial construction, including any home sits beyond 3 lots. We’re one of the few large urban areas that don’t do it. Example: when the Marsh center was built at 82nd/Allisonville, Goldsmith’s folks wanted it, so they leaned on traffic engineers to say the impact on that intersection would be minimal. Which was and is a joke. That is one of the state’s top three busiest intersections, and crashes have increased dramatically. Better engineering and lights, funded by the developers, would’ve been good.

There are just a few examples, but…it still isn’t nearly enough to pay for the ignored big-ticket items. What we really need downtown is a wholesale attitude change about delivery of services.

And it won’t ever happen. (sigh)

On the tax side–not a damned penny more sales tax. It’s regressive and it’s a quick-fix throughout history.

We can bulldoze abandoned homesites and sell them for a dollar…there are more ideas, but I’m not mayor.