The following was originally posted by Rachel Laing of Mayor Sanders’ office as a comment on a recent Richard Rider post. Given the seriousness of the Rider allegation, we thought it more appropriate that the rebuttal run as a post itself, and Ms. Laing provider her permission for us to do so…
From Rachel Laing:
There is nothing in Rider’s “support” that actually backs up the assertion that the mayor lied during the Prop D campaign. All the potential cuts that were listed in the U-T story are still very real possibilities. Nothing has changed since that story was written.
While the press release focuses on efforts the mayor will make to minimize cuts, it hardly suggests steep cuts can be avoided. In fact, at Friday’s press conference, the mayor said point blank: “Let me be very clear: There will be cuts, and there will be layoffs.” When asked by a reporter if public safety cuts were still on the table, the mayor said they were: “Public safety is not off the table. When it’s 50 percent of the budget, we have to look at that. I’ll certainly try to minimize the impact, but there’s going to be impacts.”
So how can you say the mayor lied? The $73 million we need to balance the budget didn’t go away simply because the voters said they didn’t want to contribute more to fill the gap. We’ve identified MAYBE a couple million dollars of cuts that will impact only a small fraction of residents, but no one has pulled any rabbits out of the hat yet, friends.