Everyone is concerned about budget cuts and their effects. No one wants to see services cut, rates raised or fountains turned off. Some alternatives to consider:
Plant wildflowers in boulevard dividers to cut mowing.
Convert city vehicles to propane or, better, switch from diesel to biodiesel. Even better, make your own biodiesel at a cost of about $1 a gallon.
Thin out the zoo herd, selling excess animals, increasing revenue and reducing food and care costs.
Put timers on fountains to run from 7 a.m. to midnight.
Hire a cost-savings consultant who thinks outside the box.
Sometimes it’s difficult to see the forest when you’re so close to the trees. If city leaders keep increasing costs of basic services as their only solution, it will only drive away those citizens they were elected to serve. It’s time to get creative.
Jim Summers
Kansas City
Funny thing is - most of these suggestions involve an immediate budget increase with the hopes of savings later.
... all except thinning the herds at the zoo. How this move is going to increase revenues at a zoo where it seems as if you walk a mile to catch a glimpse of a squirrel as it is mystifies me.
Posted by: JUNGLEJACK | April 02, 2009 at 05:50 PM
Really thinking outside the box Kate, lol.
Posted by: Kee | April 02, 2009 at 09:02 AM
Instead of having the zoo selling off animals, maybe they could just rent out a few cheetahs to Johnson County for coyote and deer population control.
Posted by: Kate | April 02, 2009 at 08:42 AM
I did hear that the foutains are going to be paid for by the water department and ran during daylight and eveing hours. Which is nice.
Now to hire someone to tell you that they should get a paycut? Mmm not going to happen.
Posted by: T. Hanson | April 02, 2009 at 07:50 AM
Kansas City already has vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG). They have well over 200 CNG vehicles and have more than all but two other cities in the U.S.
Posted by: Dewey | April 02, 2009 at 07:28 AM
"Hire a cost-savings consultant who thinks outside the box."
Good luck with that. I can almost guarantee you that every auditor out there uses the "thinks outside the box" line when describing himself.
Posted by: Marctnts | April 02, 2009 at 07:23 AM
"...by getting rid of those department heads that make over 100,000 dollars a year..."
What's with this latest infatuation (or cause de jour) with what other people make? I guess it's been encouraged by all the AIG bonus news and the fact that people get more jealous as their own financial security is in question.
If you think the XYZ department head at KCMO makes too much, compete for the job for yourself, and if you land it, you can give back what YOU have deemed excessive (by whatever standard you have decided to use to determine that).
Or, convince the city council that the XYZ department head makes too much and push for changes in the city's pay structure, using your power as a citizen and voter to advocate change.
Or, you could simply whine that it's not fair that others make too much, especially when YOU have decided that none of them "actually get their hands dirty everyday".
Posted by: Marctnts | April 02, 2009 at 07:20 AM
A lot of money could be cut from the city budget by getting rid of those department heads that make over 100,000 dollars a year. Because honestly how many of them actually get their hands dirty everyday?
Posted by: lucius0729 | April 02, 2009 at 03:59 AM