Dear Editor:According to your article "Budget Retains Vital Services" (The Downey Patriot, 6/24/10), the Downey City Council has approved and passed this year's budget without really having to cut anything. Oh yes, they will "maintain its hiring freeze" and "defer replacing aging equipment" and also some other "minor" reduction in programs, but the article fails to list them. However, other than those minor reductions, the $3 million deficit will be borrowed from the city surplus. The article goes on to say that the "Council members praised city staff for making the necessary cuts," whatever they are. The article ends by quoting Mayor Pro Tem Luis Marquez as saying "It was not an easy task" and that "we should also thank previous councils for putting money away when the economy was doing well." As I understand it, there were some things done by the Council other than "minor reductions in programs." On the contrary, I believe it was an easy fix to do little but borrow money from another source. The fact is that when a family household budget must be met, hard choices must be made in order to stay within that budget, whether it be eating out less or forgoing a vacation, or cutting out cable. But this Council believes that they will simply continue to borrow rather than make cuts or make those hard choices that should and must be made. We all know that cuts in programs are unpopular and not easy and no one likes them, but to continue borrowing until the surplus is gone and the burden placed on a future council who will then have the task of making those hard choices that were not made by this council, because there will be no surplus to borrow from, is unfair and not what they were elected to do. - Ed Romero, Downey

********** Published: July 1, 2010 - Volume 9 - Issue 11