04/24/06 194 W - + 8 - 12 Budget Rumors
As the Raleigh Fire Department and probably everybody else is in the (final?) throes of budget planning for the next fiscal year, let me ask a meta-question: do blog discussions of budget rumors help, hinder, or have no effect on the budget process? Are postings and/or discussions in this public forum a blip on the radar of anyone who can or may have impact on the budget process? These blog postings and the comments therein are "out there" on the big, bad Internet, so any citizen, media person, city official, or fire official can Google them. Or just plain read them. I'm as interested as anyone on knowing what's being requested for the next budget year, but my conservative side compels me to refrain from posting insider knowledge and maybe even scuttlebutt. The most straightforward approach, I suppose, would be to attend the presumably open city budget planning meetings. Then report the results here. Does the N&O or any of its columnists even cover budget planning? Maybe they're closed meetings. Well, if nothing else, we'll know what we know in another month or so when the proposed 2007 budget is released.
I would recommend that speculation on this blog be listed as such. Facts are facts – otherwise is clearly speculation/opinion/preference, etc.
Jon - 04/24/06 - 17:05