Blog #2 - Creative Solutions Needed

 There are many things I could write about, but I thought I would use this forum to be proactive and start a healthy discussion on an issue that may be a real question in the near future. As you may know the largest source of funding for the general fund for the city of Duluth is Local Government Aid (LGA) ($27 million), not property taxes($11.2 million) or sales tax($11.3 million). In fact it's over 37% of our general fund budget. Well, with a statewide deficit on the horizon, its likely the state may cut LGA again.

Here's my challenge to the readers of the Buzz Blog. Let's pretend the State cuts the city of Duluth approximately $4 million. Does anyone know of any creative solutions we haven't used yet, that we could use to solve that $4 million dollar gap?

I do have some ground rules. Please take this question seriously, don't propose cuts that don't add up to $4 million, the solution needs to meet the gap. Also, please try to avoid vague statements, such as "if we cut the fat in government we could make up the difference". Please use numbers from Duluth's 2010 City Budget. In fact I advise you to read through the budget for numbers.

My hope is to begin a public discussion on trying to find creative solutions to what may be an upcoming problem. Let's hope it’s not anywhere near as bad as $4 million, lets hope its zero.

Why am I doing this?