Budget season is upon us.

The Pavin’ Mayor has it all worked out that paving & shingling over 2500 acres is somehow ‘green’.

And he’s got the money to do it.

Here’s how it works. In the good times boost paving budgets through the stratosphere (in the adopted 2009 budget he boosted the paving budget by 60%, while every other budget but the police department went stagnant or was cut). This sets a new, outrageously elevated “adjusted base budget” for the highwaymen to work from. So even if the highway department had to endure a 6% cut along with the rest of the departments, their budget would still be some 55% higher than it was in 2008. (This, in a deflationary financial environment and a population growth rate of under 1%….)

In other words, a cut would not be a cut in the big scheme of things. It would be paving as usual for the highwaymen.

The rest of the city departments would continue to experience real cuts upon real cuts that get progressively deeper and are compounded each year. When looked at over the course of the 7 years that this mayor has been gratuitously paving, we’re starting to look at amputations in the non-paving departments.

We should expect to see drastically cut bus service, more fare hikes, and a myriad of other cuts to city services and hikes in city fees after this budget is ground out.

But definitely expect a lot more paving. For unimaginative politicians konkrete is the solution to everything.