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wwkvoter, realistically there's no way to get out of this situation other than raising taxes.

There's no way to significantly cut the legacy costs of pensions and post-retirement benefits, or to offset them dollar-for-dollar by cutting current city services.

The math just doesn't work.

My issue, all along, has been less that we're facing tax increases and more how Solomon and the city council are trying everything they can to deflect their own blame.

As I've been saying, they had the chance to approve a small tax increase two years ago that would have generated $7 million in revenue, but they didn't. Avedisian warned them about their plan, but they went ahead and did it anyway.

Now they're suddenly concerned about raising taxes and blaming him for it.

They've basically thrown out 40 years of proof that small tax hikes every year -- instead of huge increases every few years -- is a responsible way to fund a city's operations.

But they hold all 10 of the top elected positions in the city, so why should they care about how things were done before, eve if they worked better?

To answer your question, I'd replace Solomon and a majority of the city council with people who are less interested in scoring political points against a mayor who has been gone for more than a year and trying to fool people, and are more intent on keeping the city running and limiting the impact of future tax increases.