When I talked to Commissioner of Finance Kenneth Ivins Jr. this morning, after he presented proposed amendments to the 2010 operating budget, he said he was very comfortable with both his original proposal and his newest amendment.

His confidence, it seems comes from the deep-seated belief that the tax payer is on his side. He did win re-election by a comfortable margin over an opponent who ran on a platform of doing things differently, so his confidence is not rooted in thin air.

But there are a lot of other skeptics out there, including skeptics who also won election or re-election by a comfortable margin. When one of these two proposals goes into law, lets hope that Ivins is able to convert the skeptics, otherwise we'll only be looking at more cuts in May, should it look like parking revenue will not materialize.

With only 11 hours to go before the City Council holds a workshop on the 2010 comprehensive budget, and sees for the first time a revised proposal to be put forward by Commissioner of Finance Kenneth Ivins, Jr., I am finding it increasingly unlikely that this council will agree on any budget.

Although I am not privy to exactly what Ivins will present tomorrow, I have to imagine that unless he has found a new source of revenue other than paid parking, a way not to cut employees in public works and public safety, and reduced the proposed property tax increase, he isn't likely to get the consensus needed to change his original proposal.

Where does that leave us? If the council doesn't approve a budget by Nov. 30, the comprehensive budget first presented on Oct. 6 will become law, including all of the personnel reductions.

Is this what the public wants? According to Al Calucci, who spoke at Tuesday's council meeting, this is exactly what voters want, according to the results of the recent election. Personally, I have a different opinion. While there certainly does need to be some sharing of the pain, I hope that the council is able to come together to build a consensus on a budget that will not cut the city's workforce so deeply.

We are already hard up against the Nov. 30 deadline, and it will take a strong act of will for this council to push their turkey away and return to work, but that is their duty as elected officers, and I hope that the council will be able to reach a consensus on the budget, because a budget by default will only hurt.

A couple house keeping notes:

1) I apologize that things have been a little stagnant around here lately. I was in a rush to leave the office Friday to catch a plane, and didn't have time to post, and then was off yesterday (to work on Saturday), hence nothing new since Thursday.

2) Readers leaving comments will notice that you will now be asked to complete a word verification "captcha" before your comment will be submitted for moderation. I apologize for the extra step, but I've been receiving a large number of spam comments recently, which I could do without. I'm hoping the word verification will cut down on them.

On to the regular business:

As you can read in the print edition, tonight's City Council kicked off with a public hearing on the proposed 2010 budget. Some of the comments focused on paid parking, which is being proposed to help close a $6.5 million revenue gap. There were quite a few reference to a Reader's View written by Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce President Joe Dalton and published in The Saratogian on Sunday.

While I cannot verify the accuracy of the numbers cited in Dalton's letter, I can tell you that many of the comments that came up on Tuesday, and which referenced the letter, spoke to the practicality of this whole business, and, I think, throw into question the city's ability to get paid parking in place by May 1, as proposed.

The comment that really got me thinking was offered by Kyle York, who pointed out that Commissioner of Finance Kenneth Ivins Jr. proposes a committee shape paid parking. The committee would include pertinent city departments, as well as the chamber, the Downtown Business Association, and the down town Special Assessment District.

We know that the DBA and Chamber are not excited (to put it mildly) about paid parking, while pretty much everyone in City Hall has agreed that it's a necessity. So, what we're going to wind up with is a committee discussing a project wanted by half of its membership, but not wanted by the other half. How this committee is going to arrive at a model that is going to be palatable to its entire membership, and that is going to allow the city to bring in the $1.35 million budgeted in 2010 is beyond me.

Over the years we've had lots of committees, and, in my experience, they often fail to reach resolutions on matters much less complicated than paid parking -- or, if they do succeed, it takes longer than five months. Maybe this time will be different?

Some have mentioned that a parking authority is needed to shape and manage paid parking in the city. I'm not sure that another layer of bureaucracy is what we need, but we do need a strong voice to come forward and put the Chamber and DBA in their place.

If paid parking is going to be a new source of revenue for the city (as seems a near-certainty), then I hope the paid parking committee will have a chairperson who will not be afraid to tell the Joe Daltons of the city that paid parking is coming, and remind them that their job is to make Saratoga Springs a premier destination in New York, both for business and pleasure, even if it costs some pocket change to park a car.

The fallout to U.S. Rep. Murphy over his 'no' vote on the House health care reform bill continues today, in both online and physical forms.

First, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee has launched a web ad targeting Murphy and other Democrats who voted against the bill. An email sent out by the committee to its 250,000 members calls Murphy a "bad Democrat."

"Poll after poll shows that even voters in conservative areas want health care reform and demand the public option. Scott Murphy won his special election thanks to ads featuring President Obama, yet he voted the president's top domestic priority: health reform that Murphy's constituents desperately need. We're making sure he pays a political price back home for that," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Second, Moveon.org, a left-leaning advocacy group, has planned a 4:30 rally outside of Murphy's Clifton Park office for this afternoon.

"We are at a historic moment for health care policy. Late Saturday night, the House voted to pass the health care bill that contains the public option. Unfortunately, Congressman Murphy voted against the bill. We will be meeting to show the Congressman that we are disappointed with his vote, and urge him to follow the lead of Senator Schumer, a true champion of the public option," said a description of the rally posted on the organization's website.

As you can read in my story from Tuesday's paper, Murphy felt that the reforms would not bring adequate reform to the health care system, and said that he hopes the Senate send back a bill that will better jive with his views, and yet, the idealistic vote may have served to curry negative sentiment among many of Murphy's supporters. Time will tell how this vote effects him.

9,000+ unique hits in October, thanks everyone!

All continues to be quiet in City Hall, with the election being over, and the budget still pending. I believe that the public hearing next Tuesday will be very interesting, and expect that we will see a proposed budget with some kind of revision.

In general, though, I would say that this is possibly one of the least-stimulating periods that I can recall experiencing in city government.

To break the monotony, I will share a gag that I just read in the current issue of The Skidmore News (available downtown at Esperanto's, among other locations). The joke appears in the paper's "Blurbs overheard" section, and is discussing the college's annual Moorebid Ball, a Halloween dance, named for the former residence hall in which the dance was once held:

"I lost my fake ID at Moorebid."
"Jeez, that sucks."
"Yeah, and when I went to Campus Safety to see if they'd found it, they were ridiculously unhelpful."

Ah, to be in college..