Letter: Budget discomfort

To the editor:

After reading Chad Lawhorn’s article “Q&A on Lawrence city budget,” I am appalled at the proposed city budget that David Corliss has apparently submitted as a serious proposal. Putting aside the questionable wisdom of passing deficit budgets that require in-year adjustments, it appears that the city is forgetting one side of the equation: Reducing expenditures is a legitimate function of prudent government.

As a business owner, I do not hire additional employees unless I am assured that the increased costs are warranted by increased revenues and the bottom line does not suffer because of it. While the revenues seem to be doing fine in Lawrence, despite the commission’s continual whining about what happens in Topeka, the bottom line does not compute in this budget.

As a homeowner, I would like to hire a maid, a butler and an interior decorator. However, I’m not able to spend other people’s money and thus I don’t add those positions to my household budget unless I’m able to cut my other expenses to meet the deficit.

Corliss says he feels uncomfortable making those cuts without a bottle of Southern Comfort. I, for one, will be happy to contribute to the purchase of a bottle of Southern Comfort for him. It would be a lot less detrimental to the taxpayers’ pocketbooks if everyone would do the same.