Rather than declare this balanced budget a smoke & mirrors failure, let’s see where it stands in 2-3 years.
We should start by waiting to see if this budget even comes to pass. It relies on a number of disparate groups to approve various line items.
I suspect the city will be much improved by then.
I suspect it won't. Receipts from personal income tax are expected to decrease and budget gaps dramatically widen between now and 2030.
No, let’s pretend doing something great, and extremely rare, like balancing the budget, is a bad thing.
This budget may be balanced, assuming everyone involved votes for it to happen, but the structural problems remain.