HELPLESS, CLUELESS, OR GUTLESS?

"WE NEED YOUR HELP!" shout the quarter-page ads the City of Grand Rapids has been running in the Press.

City officials claim they need us to tell them which City services and programs must be retained as the City cuts its budget to cover a $100 million deficit over the next five years.  To do this, they want you to sign up right away for the limited number of seats available at four different "community meetings" on the budget shortfall.

Sounds good, doesn't it?  Citizens determining how their tax dollars will be spent during this fiscal crisis.  Conjures up images of the direct democracy of an old-fashioned New England townhall meeting.  Of course, no such thing is happening.  The City Commission is yielding none of its authority to us to determine where our tax dollars go -- as well they shouldn't!  That's what we elected our mayor and commissioners to do.  We elected them to make the hard decisions in a crunch and then justify to us what they did come the next election.

These limited-seating short-notice "community meetings" are nothing but cover to gather together the local special interests under the rubric of "the public" to see who is going to squawk the loudest when the City pols try to pull their hands out of the till.  City officials already know, just like the ordinary taxpayer does, what is essential:  Public safety, water & sewer service, sanitation, and the streets.  Maybe the parks, unless the alternative is bankruptcy.  All the rest is the fat that the special interests feed upon.

For example, do City taxpayers really need to fork over $5 million to support Amway founder Rich DeVos's latest downtown hotel project?  Of course not, and our City officials know this.  So they aren't helpless let alone clueless about what to do.

So what's left?