Sequestration of Norfolk

Please sir, raise taxes so I can get educated

 By June 1, Norfolk should start cutting.

Call it the sequestration of Norfolk.

The city manager should demand that every department submit a budget with a 10 percent cut.

That means city departments should consider cuts in personnel, travel expenses and other extraneous costs. In other words, the fluff should be subject to the knife. And there is fluff; you just need to uncover it.

The federal government is in the throes of sequestration, so Norfolk should follow suit and start cutting.

Don’t ask for more taxes. 

Cut.

Don’t say you want to build new schools with new taxes.

Cut instead.

Or find ways to do things differently.

That includes neighborhoods, as well.

Learn to manage your community.

Stop asking the city to spend every nickel and dime on your sidewalk or whatever you want today.

Ask what can you do for your community, not what government can do for your community.

Raising taxes without considering other options is irresponsible government.

Sure, raise taxes, but consider trimming other city expenses at the same time.

Over the past decade, the city has poured millions of dollars into downtown while giving short shift to other community needs.

What is important?

Public art? Food carts?

A new hotel and conference center?

Or improving the educational character of the city?

Crime and schools. A place for children and families.

But you want to raise taxes when the city’s poverty rate is one of the highest in the region.

You want to raise taxes when the unemployment rate is still higher than other cities and the homeless have taken over the streets.

Absolutely, raise taxes.

Then we’ll see how many people stay in Norfolk. Then we will see how many people flee Norfolk.

Haven’t seen the “Come home to Norfolk” slogan lately. Could it be that Norfolk isn’t the home to which people come?

Everyone should give a little to get what they want.

The argument that other cities have raised taxes to fund potential shortfalls is irrelevant.

Norfolk isn’t Virginia Beach or Newport News or Hampton.

We want this and we want that.

Maybe we should start saying we will help do this and do that.

Don’t rely on government so much. Think outside the box. Be ingenious.

Be a community, not a patchwork of haves and have nots.