Friday: Digging In

So the Mayor subverts the trope by announcing he's going to submit for overseer approval a 2011 budget rife with PAINFUL, UGLY, OOZING BUDGET CUTS -- a thing the City in fact must do unless a bailout maneuver is settled upon soon (such as the parking lease he spent the past year working on and having 3,726 meetings about) -- and...

"I shared my concern at the meeting that we need to make sure we're using the same playbook and the same numbers," said councilwoman Natalia Rudiak. "I refuse to use that [$30 million number] as ammunition to scare the public. I find that offensive." (P-G, Tim McNulty)

Excellent! So it's like, first we're going to see a Math Off, and next we're going to talk about somewhere between $12 million and $30 million worth of budget cuts.

We don't need to tie this into the parking lease, you guys! Let's see what some aggressive budget cutting looks like. Call it a fire drill. Call it a visioning project in over-performing government. If it turns out we don't need it, put it on a shelf and call it "Plan D" or "Operation Crimson Nightmare."

But definitely submit it to the ICA -- in fact, they will be a good resource for fleshing out your own budget-shrinking ideas and weighing them against the others. Yes! Ha ha ha! I can feel the conservatism FLOWING through you. The unions are defenseless! Strike them down, and together we shall rule the city as managers! Move against the fire fighters first!

As for the parking lease:

Councilman Ricky Burgess said he considers the mayor's plan "the only option," calling others "just theories." (Trib, Adam Brandolph)

Technically, the issuance of government bonds is more than a "theory". We know bonds traders. We can make it happen. As for that third option, I'm just dying with anticipation, you guys! You all know what it is, don't you? DON'T YOU? TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME!

DRILLING SIDEBAR: Ferlo's town-hall sounded like it had diverse panelists. If it's ever going to be on PNC or something, I'd like to hear about it.

During the public comment period, Ron Gulla, who owns 141 acres in Hickory, said he was among the first to agree to allow Marcellus Shale drilling on his land, and he came to regret it. The drillers lied to him and had no respect for his land, he said. A pond on his property is now copper-colored.

"What's going on now is very wrong," he said. "There are cattle that have died. There are farmers whose lives have been turned upside-down."

Mr. Gulla also criticized the DEP, asking Mr. Perry, "What did you do for all those years when the drilling was going on and the state was being contaminated? You said you couldn't keep up, but you kept issuing the permits." (P-G, Tim Majors)

DRILLING PREDICTION: I think it's inevitable the state will do something to slow down this rampaging industry until the sciences of health risk assessments and optimal drilling technologies catch up. The only questions are: whether they will do it reasonably soon, or way too late and in shame and disgrace; and whether they will do it before the shame-and-disgrace zone hits my city, its environs and whatever lies precipitously upstream.