Thoughts and Musings

Forget May, 21: With just a few hours left for May 21, it looks like the world will not end today. Now we can focus of something more important like the Mayan predictions for 2012

How Serious are Republicans about cutting the deficit?: Since the Republicans and their Kool Aid drinking Tea Party minions have taken control of the House, there has been non-stop blather about cutting the deficit and reducing the national debt.

But how serious are they?

This week with gas prices running amok and energy companies scoring record profits on the backs of consumers, what did the Senate Republicans do? They blocked a measure that would have eliminated energy company subsidies - money that could have gone to reducing the debt.

Marathon Meeting For Elk Grove City Council: This Wednesday's city council meeting should last several hours given the lengthy agenda and the fact that this is the only meeting in May. On top of that, the city's preliminary 2012 budget will be discussed.

Missing Preliminary Budget Report: One of the items to be discussed at that meeting is budget, but there appears to be no information currently available about the budget. A click on the report link for the budget show only a one page explanation that the budget will be presented at the meeting.

It would be handy if this document was available to the public prior to the meeting.

Cap to Cap Summary: Given the continuing sorry state of the economy and tightening municipal budgets, we hope that our five city council members and two city staffers return with some real meat and potatoes, or shall we dare say it - pork.  Please don't regale us with stories about "productive meetings" - show us what taxpayers money is going to get us in return.

Financial Disclosures: Speaking of Cap to Cap, we wonder if council member Sophia Scherman and her political protege Pat Hume will disclose all their junket activities on time. Regular EGN readers will recall that both teacher and student did not disclose their 2009 Cap to Cap activities in a timely manner.

At least Scherman amended her report when she was informed of her error. The same cannot be said for Hume.  Hume was several months late and he initially attributed the delay to misplaced paperwork.

This is something to keep an eye as both Scherman and Hume seek higher elected office.