The Mayor that Stole Christmas

Just one week after ramming through legislation to give (yes, give) a development company over $30 million to build yet another downtown attraction (shops and restaurants), Louisville's mayor suddenly discovered a $20 million budget shortfall that has to be fixed yesterday. He is demanding that all city unions, primarily the fire and police departments, take a 2% pay cut. The metro council says that the city's operating budget is hurting, but not to the tune of $20 million, and that the capital budget is flush and can be used to shore up operations. Our unions have asked the mayor to disclose all the city's financial records to us so that an outside accounting firm (at our expense) can take a look at the figures. His response is that there is no time for that, we need to act now! And what does he do since we are trying to make an informed assessment of the situation? He has chosen to no longer act as a conduit for the $3100 in incentive pay that professional firefighters receive from the state, cutting our bi-weekly paychecks by $120. The state gives the money to the city and pays our pension contribution on those funds, and now it is gone because Louisville's mayor is a petulant child. The only thing saving this holiday season at the firehouse is our Christmustache contest - more to follow on that.