This Is What I Voted For

Despite numerous distractions along the way, I've never lost faith in the fundamental premise of why I voted for Mayor Funkhouser. It's paying off.

His handling of the budget mess has been masterful. First, he didn't play the "hide the cards" game of his predecessor. As soon as he got the structurally imbalanced budget from Wayne "I fixed the imbalance on my resume" Cauthen, he shared it with the rest of the Council, in a good faith effort to allow them to be fully informed and up to speed.

Then, he called on Cauthen to propose how to eliminate the $78 million imbalance immediately. Of course, Cauthen groused about it and proposed an unworkably harsh budget, but it got everyone's attention. Business as usual is dead, and everyone knows it.

Now, it's time for hard choices. Funk has the city talking about them - facing financial reality as the economic picture turns dark. He's come up with a way to get 20 more cops, focus on basic services, and improve our codes enforcement, but it's not easy, and it's not ribbon-cutting that is going to get us there.

Funk promised to work toward a city that works for regular folks. I look at his budget, and I think he's leading us toward that goal. Given the enormous stakes (Moody's has changed our credit outlook from stable to negative), I'm happy that we've moved past the "Don't Tax, but Spend Lavishly" atmosphere celebrated by the TIF pigs running the show for the past several years.

This is the hard work of governing, and Funkhouser has rolled up his sleeves. Thank you, Kansas City, for electing him.