Some major cyber sniping about the 10 percent of the city budget that is unaffected by the budget crisis – the debt service the city has to pay on the money we have borrowed to finance the bond projects we have voted for over the past couple of years.

Why isn’t this affected by the budget crisis? Because, as I noted in May, we have to pay the interest on the debt. No choice, unless we want to have the constables come and repossess the libraries or highways or whatever that were built with the bond money. So we can cut rec centers and libraries and even cops, but we have to pay the vig. Nothing like planning ahead, is there? Oh that’s right, I forgot — no way anyone could have forecast the recession that caused all of this.

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Turns out East Dallas councilwoman Angela Hunt has a plan: She doesn’t want to spend money from the bond program that is included in next year’s budget to save on the debt service. “See, if we decide to borrow $314 million next year, then the following budget year we’re going to be up a creek without a paddle.  Our credit card payment will jump by $24 million.  TWENTY-FOUR MILLION DOLLARS.”

This does not sit well with blogger Pete Oppel, who calls Hunt’s proposal “the height of hypocrisy.” He writes that we wouldn’t have these problems if the council had done a better job of handling the sale of the bond program in question. “Here’s some advice for you, Ms. Hunt, and the rest of the City Council: Quit representing just the 43 percent of your constituents who are homeowners and start representing all of the people of your district, as you were elected to do.”