by Chris Munzing
However, they face the pending departure of City Comptroller Alice Schildkraut, a current budget with a potential multi-million-dollar hole created by unrealized land sales, and steadfast opposition from Democratic councilmen Lenny Remo and Denis Kelly.
The coalition of council President Jim Hennessy, Vice President Tom Sofield and Councilwoman Mona Goodman made the same promise during the 2003 campaign, and delivered it in the current budget, though anticipated revenues from the sale of the Waldbaum's property and the Superblock have yet to be realized.
"I firmly believe the people can't take the taxes anymore," Hennessy said. "This is about what the average guy can and cannot live with. My first priority is to the taxpayers of this city."
Theofan said that he would be sitting down with the comptroller's office to complete his budget, which is due to the council on April 10 but, Theofan said, he would likely have ready by April 8. He stopped short of ruling out the use of layoffs to balance the budget. "It is my goal to have a budget with no layoffs," Theofan said. "Unfortunately, anything is possible. But we are making very good progress on the budget."
"I don't want to lay another person off - I don't want anybody to be laid off," Hennessy said. "And we will work to the last day to make sure that doesn't happen. The city is coming out of its financial woes and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. This will be a complete, responsible, balanced budget."
But Kelly said that the coalition majority's determination not to raise taxes was reckless. "A zero would be terrific if it were real and possible, but it's not," he said. "This is pure politics. If the people buy this B.S., then we're all in big, big trouble."
Remo agreed. "The zero-percent tax increase in the current budget has put the city's bond rating in great jeopardy," he said. "I am worried that the zero-percent tax increase and one-shot revenues being discussed in next year's budget will force [Moody's Financial Services] to lower our bond rating to junk, and force the city to raise fees once again.
"In government you need to make difficult choices," Remo continued. "The most important one is the fiscal health and responsibility of our city, and those decisions shouldn't be made for political expediency."
Kelly said he favored a sound budget with a moderate tax increase to give the city some money to improve its quality of life. "We can do all these wonderful things in the city, like improve the rec center, pave streets, hire more police officers," he said. "Zero sounds good, but it is ultimately doing irreparable damage to this city. I am not here to support a zero to fulfill someone's ego. Let's address the problem, get over the pain of doing what needs to be done, and get this thing going."
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