2011-12 CITY OF ROCHESTER BUDGET PRIORITIES: PAINTING A BIGGER PICTURE

Rochester, N.Y. -- This might be what some would call painting a picture with broad brush strokes, but nonetheless here we go. If you want to find specific budget number crunching, you won't see it here in this commentary.  Not yet, anyway.  That is reserved for later, after Mayor Richards’ budget plan is revealed on May 20. But what you will find here, however, are some thoughts that we all need to keep in mind when we finally decide how we appropriate city tax payer dollars in the years to come.

We all understand that we have to spend less because of reduced revenue, but it's how we exact our priorities and how we decide to use our resources wisely becomes the bigger question when trying to balance local budgets.

First of all, the City of Rochester budget comes in at around 465.3 million. That is not chump change. Approximately 3.5 million dollars goes to funding the 10 city branch libraries-- that is less than 2 percent of the total budget. For every New York state tax dollar spent on libraries, residents get back nearly 13 dollars of services. Look it up here.

The Highland Branch Library circulates
nearly 94,000 library materials a year.
photo:  courtesy RPL

Now let's take the Highland Branch Library for example: operating costs come in around $265,000 a fiscal year. According to ROC DOC's, that amount equals the yearly salary and benefits of two top confidential/management employees for the City of Rochester. The Highland Branch Library, which has been proposed for possible closure, touches and embraces tens of thousands of residents each year-- as does all the neighborhood libraries. So, I will now publicly ask, where are our priorities? Does this approach satisfy the greater good of the community?

A community philosophy and a couple of questions

When local governments talk of municipal budget decisions, we are truly following a community philosophy-- it's about what's true, personal responsibility, inclusion, opportunity and a fair shake at the American Dream.

For every citizen who cares about our great city-- the message could not be clearer. The big question is what kind of city do we want to live in? Will my tax dollars provide me and my family with a fair return on my investment? Above all, what I really want is for me and my family to live in a city that we can believe in.

Another question that needs to be addressed is how the progressive moral system defines the democratic ideals of America and our city. What were the principles it was founded on and how do those ideals apply to specific issues we as taxpayers care about? Our collective moral vision, when applied to the budget, is more general with everyone who shares that same moral vision of what we call American democracy.

In the first place, should our budget priorities contradict the moral vision of why our city is one of the best mid-size cities in America? I think not.

Today, our real economic issues are jobs, economic recovery and finding a remedy for the inadequate distribution of wealth and services that has created a fragmented class structure here in Rochester. It also wouldn't hurt to create an environment whereby citizens could contribute to the property tax rolls by owning their own business or buying a home. Our city will not survive without a strong, vibrant middle-class. The real issues here are existential questions: what is Rochester at heart and what will we become?

Our collective vision for Rochester should shape the budget discussion

In 2005, former mayor Bob Duffy laid out these moral principles as well as anyone ever has and roused our neighbors in support of his vision for OneCity. In his first term as Mayor, he focused on pragmatics and policy-- public safety, education and economic development. He was a huge literacy and library supporter too-- he knew how important our libraries were to the neighborhoods.

When it came to education, the attacks by his nay-sayers, to some degree, were moderately successful even though most residents thought mayoral control of RCSD would be a more pragmatic approach for an out-of-control school system. The lesson here is that morality at the general level beats out policy at the particular level. The reason is our residents identify themselves simply as moral beings, not policy wonks.

All politics is moral. Political leaders put forth proposals on the assumption that their proposals are the right thing to do. Obviously, progressives and radical conservatives have very different beliefs when it comes to understanding what is right and what is wrong and how to spend our tax dollars.

The main idea here is this: The history of our democracy and our city is based on empathy-- that is, citizens caring about each other and acting on that care; taking responsibility not just for themselves but for their families, communities and their city. The role of government is to carry out this principle in three ways: personal and material protections, public services and individual empowerment.

Our taxes help us do together what we cannot do alone

To do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves is at the heart of civility and life here in Rochester. It's what I also call pride and patriotism. The American belief ... that each one of us deserves some basic measure of security... that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, hard time or bad luck, crippling illness or a layoff, it may strike any one of us at any time. This is what our government is for—to assist our fellow citizens in times of crisis. This is what we should be spending our 465 million dollars on. This is why our safety-nets called Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid should always prevail.

The fact is, our New York State tax codes and loopholes have been favoring those with substantial wealth-- the tax system is highly unfair and that needs to change.
 

Kids play at the Flint St.
Recreation playground.
photo:  City of Rochester

The greatness of our city will be measured by us carrying out such moral commitments as public safety with our fire and police departments, access to our community libraries, clean streets and the right of a child to get a great education and have an after school program to nourish their spirit.



We need to rethink those ideals every time we assess our budget priorities-- this is a time when other cities and municipalities across America are defunding and attacking immigrants, the poor, elderly, the disabled, labor unions, people of color, the environment and everything up and in-between. That's not us-- that's not Rochester, N.Y.

Moral arguments can, and should, always be given for all budget policies at all levels of government on all issues we care about: the environment, marriage equality, education, health care, civil rights, family planning, organizing rights, voting rights, immigration, and so forth.



It is only by repetition of these moral principles that the citizenry begins to understand how all these ideas fit together as realizations of the same basic democratic principles I believe our forefathers intended as an edict for future generations to live by.

The very idea of taxes



What is missing from this painted picture is any sense of a larger meaning in the act of paying taxes. Most other things that require effort and sacrifice-- family, service, charity, and volunteerism-- have virtuous, or at least redeeming, meaning associated with them. That meaning helps us face life’s challenges with a sense of a larger purpose that makes these acts worth the sacrifice.

The stories we tell about why we pay taxes reflect a chronic disconnection from our role as citizens; they are devoid of any civic meaning. The real meaning of taxes pays for the things that underpin our public life and connect us to one another through our communities, our states and our country.

The Rochester I know


The Rochester I know is generous and compassionate; a city of opportunity and optimism. We take responsibility for ourselves and each other; for the city and county we want and for the future we share. We are the city that is home to civil rights icons-- and if anything, we honor diversity, fairness and inclusion.

LABOR DAY PARADE IN ROCHESTER, N.Y.
Marchers walk down East Main Street in downtown
Rochester on September 6, 2010 for the Labor Day Parade.
photo:  Ove Overmyer

Our local universities lead the world in medical and scientific research and technological breakthroughs that have transformed millions of lives. It has been said that Rochester is home to the best library and park systems in the nation. We are one of the most giving cities in the world. We consistently rank as one of the best places to live, work and raise a family.

And, this all happens because we understand that the shared sacrifices we make as individual tax payers pay for the services we so desperately want for our families and for our neighborhoods. This is who we are. This is the Rochester I know. We don’t have to choose between a future of rising debt and one where we forfeit investments in our people and our city.

To meet our fiscal budget challenges, sure, we will need to make reforms and we will eventually get it done. But, at whose expense? Indeed, all city residents will need to make sacrifices-- all of us have been doing that for many years so this should not come as a shock to anyone who is paying attention. But we do not have to sacrifice the Rochester we believe in.

In conclusion, once you close a branch library or reduce hours of operation at a recreation center-- there is no going back. Because library advocacy efforts can't be measured through financial success, and our results are often so frustratingly unquantifiable, libraries will remain an easy target.

Rochester takes pride in its public services. Let's not turn our back on those citizens who need us most-- immigrants, women, children, the elderly, people of color and the disenfranchised. Let's keep moving in the right direction and not stray from the course that former Mayor Bob Duffy created for us-- OneCity Rochester. That’s the city I believe in.  That's the city I know we can become.

Finally, I know what you are thinking and the answer is no.  I never drink Kool-Aid.

-Ove Overmyer
The author is CSEA President, City of Rochester Library Workers Local 828 Unit 7420.  The opinions expressed above are the authors exclusively and do not reflect the views of CSEA as an organization.