Two Cars Equals 11 Votes

The City Council last night unanimously approved $395,000 in budget cuts last night, after Mayor Dan Mylott found funding for two new police cruisers. The $50,000 will come from a reduced lease for the McKay School through Fitchburg State College.

Not surprisingly, the cruisers were enough were to get the council to approve the cuts. The cuts were necessarily, but councilors last week threw back Mylott's first recommendation. It was pretty clear, especially with Joel Kaddy, that inserting a cruiser or two would get the deal done.

Now, the question becomes, how does the council and the mayor move forward on budgetary matters? Mylott claimed last week he was mystified as to what the council wanted, but somehow managed to figure it out by last night. How much of a say will the council have in future budgetary matters, like the '08 budget? With the council's constant braying for fiscal conservatism and not using free cash to balance the budget be heard? Or will it be ignored once again? It might be the major political battleground of next year.

If you want a little more, here's the Telegram story. It doesn't mention the unanimous vote, we had to call the City Clerk's office this morning to find out. If you need even more, here's the Sentinel story, which once again faced deadline issues.