I promise not to make ridiculous promises.

Today's mail brought one of the first pieces of mayoral literature I've seen for the 2007 campaign. Considering I'm counting on the winner of that election to be my next boss (after my constituents of course), I'm paying pretty close attention to what they have to say. I can honestly say I really don't dislike any of the mayoral candidates personally. I've met almost all of them and find them to be fairly decent people. That being said, I've met and liked thousands of people in my lifetime, it doesn't mean I think they'd all make a good mayor. This particular candidate lists his/her campaign points, and boy are there a lot of them! I guess if you can't promise one thing, promise everything? Paraphrasing a bit to protect the innocent(?) this particular candidate is going to improve law enforcement, fix our infrastructure, keep our credit rating in good shape, fix our billion dollar sewer problem, clean the air, provide better health care, build a mass transit system, AND lots of other things. I don't like to be a pessimist, but come on! There's only so many budget dollars and so many usage taxes you can implement. At the end of the day you have to go with what you can afford. A transit system (ie: light rail) has been estimated at about $1 Billion. Ditto for upgrading our 19th Century sewer system. That puts us at a cool $2 Billion before we even think about filling one pothole. Since I know the sewer issue is going to be a "have to" and not a "want to" during my tenure, I have been through the budget repeatedly and guess what? There's not a spare billion to be had. This may come as a surprise to voters who actually believe empty campaign promises. I'm trying to stick to things I think I can accomplish. In the business world of flashy can do seminars this is what is known as going after the low hanging fruit. Start with the easy things that save money like improved efficiency and then from those savings you might have a buck or two to spend. Political promises are cheap. Believing in them can be expensive!