CLEVELAND BUDGET PERPLEX 2: More thoughts:

1) There's a big hand-lettered sign on a fence on Scranton Road that says "Cut the fat, not the firefighters. Call Jane Campbell." One more sign of a long, hard budget season, that will only get longer and harder if the Mayor tries to finesse her problems with quiet deals and last-minute rabbits pulled out of Finance Director Baker's hat.

The Mayor says she has told all the department directors to show her how their budgets can be cut by 10%. Just remember -- this is a General Fund shortfall we're discussing. Three-fifths of the General Fund is spent by the Department of Public Safety. Therefore, three-fifths of a 10% across-the-board budget cut will be borne by that department. More than 90% of General Fund dollars in the Public Safety budget go directly to the Police and Fire divisions. So if there's going to be "fat" to cut, that's where the Mayor has to look.

Cut $20 to $25 million from Police and Fire, without cutting patrol officers and firefighters? Lotsa luck. But without some way to get revenue up, that's the quandary the City faces... which is why friends of the firefighters' union are already putting up signs.

2) My rumor mill tells me that at least two Members of Council are already raising money for mayoral runs. Whether this is true or not, it reflects the certainty that political and journalistic behavior on the 2004 budget issue will assume it's all about November 2005.

No potential candidate for Mayor should get a free ride on this. Reporters and citizens need to make all the players come clean on their budget positions, long before this turns into a posture-fest at the Council committee table. If you think people need to be laid off, who goes first? If there's "fat" to be cut, where is it specifically? If you don't have some useful leadership to offer now, don't come to us talking about leadership in 2005. No Schwartzeneggers need apply.

Of course, this can't happen if all the numbers aren't public.

3) I said this in passing a couple of posts back but I want to repeat it emphatically: The 2004 General Fund projections (and the 2003 numbers to date) -- all the projections -- should be posted prominently on the City's website right now, and updated as the Administration's information changes. This issue, far more than lakefront design or even the Convention Center, cries out for an open transparent public process: "We will have a lot less money than we need next year. What should we do about it?"