Tonight’s meeting of the Park Ridge City Council (City Hall, 7:30 p.m.) appears to be the deadline for Mayor Dave Schmidt to veto all, or specific line items, of the 2010-11 budge – or to let it become law “as is.”

Schmidt already has stated that he intends to veto this “hopelessly flawed” budget, so the only two questions are: Will Schmidt veto the entire budget or veto only certain line items; and will the City Council over-ride his veto?

Schmidt has expressed his concerns about the budget allocations to the O’Hare Commission ($165,000) and the private community groups ($186,000), so those are two line items that could be vetoed.  But as we understand it, Schmidt’s veto cannot be limited only to portions of a line item.  It that’s true, it means that Schmidt can’t just veto, say, the $105,000 for the O’Hare lobbyist, or chop all the community groups except, say, the Center of Concern’s $55,000.  He either has to veto the entire line item (e.g., the O’Hare Commission item, or the community groups item) or leave it alone.

Schmidt also has questioned the validity of City Mgr. Jim Hock’s revenue projections, including Hock’s foolish insistence on keeping $930,000+ of state income tax revenue sharing in the budget, even though Gov. Patrick Quinn has proposed cutting it and State Rep. Rosemary Mulligan warned the City Council back in March that Quinn was serious about those cuts.  Hock’s only reaction has been a tepid suggestion that, if/when that tax revenue cut becomes reality, the City can cut $400,000+ in tree trimming and another $500,000+ by deferring the replacement of city vehicles.

That’s the tree-trimming program that has been scaled back over the years to the point where most of the power outages in Park Ridge are attributed (albeit by Com Ed, so a little skepticism is in order) to power line damage caused by un-trimmed trees.  And if vehicle replacement is “deferred,” that just adds to the replacement costs next year – the kind of kick-the-can-down-the-road fiscal irresponsibility that put the State of Illinois in its current mess and is steering Park Ridge down that same path.

Plus, both of Hock’s ideas are just that, ideas, with nothing actually proposal and no Council approval.  Which makes them totally meaningless.

If Schmidt is serious in his criticism of inflated revenue projections, then a line-item veto won’t work because he can’t line-item revenues.  So unless he applies the veto pen to enough line items of expenses to make up for all the revenue shortfalls he perceives – including that $930,00+ shortfall from the State of Illinois – his only option is to veto the entire budget.

Which makes the most sense, since a mayoral veto should be a last-ditch “safety switch” which the mayor can trip to avert a problem rather than a device for mayoral tinkering with matters (like the budget) that are intended to fall exclusively within the legislative role of the City Council.

But assuming Schmidt vetoes all or part of the budget, will the Council over-ride that veto – like it did a year ago when Schmidt vetoed the Council’s over-budgeted giveaway of funds to the private community groups?

The Council needs five votes to over-ride.  Two (Don Bach and Joe Sweeney) of the seven aldermen voted “no” on the budget’s passage; and Ald. Frank Wsol suggested he was hoping for a mayoral veto even as he disingenuously voted to approve that budget.

So it’s possible a veto could be sustained.  But, then again, anything’s “possible” with the crowd that currently fills the chairs around The Horseshoe.