Who Will Cave First?

On December 20th of last year, Massillon City Council voted down the Mayor for Life's unbalanced budget on a 5 to 4 vote.

Bed rock, die hard, loyal to the end rubber stamps Tax Man Hersher, Lap Dog of the Treasury Paul Manson, Ron Mang and Dave McCune voted to pass the budget.

Kathy Catazaro-Perry, Tony Townsend, Gary Anderson, Donnie Peters, and Larry Slagle voted against passing the unbalanced budget which shorted police and fire fighter salaries by over $1 million dollars.

Did Cicchinelli try and fix his budget, making corrections before resubmitting it?

Nope.

Did Lap Dog of the Treasury, Council Finance Chairman Paul Manson, lead council in serious budget discussions?

Nope.

The budget actually got worse.

The budget on the table now has $337,000 dollars less in revenue than the budget city council rejected in December.

Where did the money go? According to Auditor Jayne Ferrero, money was taken from the police and fire pension funds to pay bills that were not paid in 2010.

It is now February 8, and the city has still not passed a budget for 2011.

And what is the plan of our Mayor for Life, King Francis the Eternal, to fix this?

His plan is to do nothing.

As of late, Our Lord Mayor has gotten his gotten council to approve controversial measures on a 5 to 4 vote.

The loyal to the death rubber stamps, Tax Man Hersher, Lap Dog of the Treasury Manson, Ron Mang, and Dave McCune always vote with the mayor.

They are usually joined by either Donnie Peters, or Larry Slagle.

If Peters votes against something, Slagle usually votes for it, and vice versa.

The budget vote was the rare occasion where they both voted no.

The Lord Mayor has no intention of fixing his budget.

He just needs either Donnie Peters or Larry Slagle to change their vote.

The big question becomes which one of them will throw their principles out the window, roll over, and give the mayor what he wants?

Perhaps the mayor will promise to pave a street in Peters' ward to get his vote.

Perhaps the Mayor's Loyal Enforcer, Council President Glenn Gamber, will twist Slagle's arm until he votes for the budget.

What is clear, is that one of them will roll over and cave in.

The only question is which one will cave first?