As we approach decision day on the 2010-11 Park Ridge City budget, it’s looking more and more like the chances of getting that budget balanced are less and less. 

Both our City officials and various special interests have talked about restoring cuts that City Mgr. Jim Hock made in his proposed budget, but none of them have suggested corresponding increases in revenues or alternative cuts to counterbalance the funds being restored.

Big problem. 

Take firefighters union head, Matt Jarka, for example.  According to a story in this week’s Park Ridge Herald-Advocate (“PUBLIC SAFETY: Police, firefighters bring campaign against staff cuts to your doorstep,” March 23), his union members were out leafleting the City to warn about the dangers of “cut[ting] corners in public safety.” 

Jarka claims that losing three firefighters/paramedics will prevent the Fire Dept. from staffing its 95-foot ladder truck, resulting in the sale of that vehicle (that was purchased in 2001) and increased reliance on other departments to provide the equipment we need to fight fires in buildings 24 feet or taller.  Jarka states that these cuts “don’t make sense…from a financial standpoint or a safety standpoint.”

What doesn’t make sense to us, however, is selling off a piece of needed equipment just because the Dept. is losing 3 people.  Wouldn’t it make more sense to hang onto that 95-foot ladder truck so that it can be used by the remaining firefighters/paramedics if/when needed?  Or is the City counting on the proceeds of that used truck sale to bolster its revenues?

But if Mr. Jarka really thinks those cuts don’t make sense financially, can he please tell City Mgr. Jim Hock where to find the additional revenue, or the alternative cuts, needed to keep those three people in the department?  And can Police Chief Frank Kaminski, who said the proposed cuts to four police officers will eliminate the department’s Traffic Unit and reduce the “quality and quantity of traffic safety programs,” do the same?

Meanwhile, back around The Horseshoe, Mayor Dave Schmidt and City Mgr. Hock need to re-think their statements that the proposed City budget should not allow for the $936,000 loss of state funding Gov. Quinn has proposed in order to keep the State afloat – especially now that State Rep. Rosemary Mulligan has warned that such a loss is likely…and that fiscal year 2012 “will be just as bad as fiscal year 2011.”

In view of the fact that the State of Illinois is already more than four months and $900,000 behind in this year’s income tax payments to Park Ridge, we suggest that Schmidt and Hock listen to Ald. Frank Wsol (7th Ward), whom we have criticized in the past on financial matters but who correctly has asked that the questionable $936,000 of state funds be removed from the projected revenues of the proposed budget.

Hock, however, says he’s got some ideas about what the City can do if it doesn’t get all its income tax revenues from the State next year. 

Hey, Jim, does one of those ideas begin with the instruction: “Bend over…”?

Update 3/26/10: Although we accurately reported an earlier statement by Mayor Schmidt that he thought Gov. Quinn’s threatened cut of income tax funds to municipalities was a “political ploy,” we failed to point out that more recently the mayor has taken this threat seriously and has raised the alarm about its effects on City finances, especially the proposed 2010-11 budget.

Hopefully, the members of the City Council will do likewise.