I am sure most of us have had to deal with shrinking budgets at home. And what do we have to do. Make sacrifices and cut out things that are not totally necessary.

So why shouldnt we expect the city government to do the same. The reality is that city budgets over the last 5 years when the housing bubble went up far outpaced both inflation and population growth which actually has been close to zero. Any revenue increases that were above the inflation rate should be considered unneeded and cut out.

Live within your budget. It is that simple.

Here is a better question. What do we need to correct the massive imbalance and lack of fiduciary responsibility?
Answer: We need fiscal responsibility. It took 37 years to create a billion dollar budget and only 10 years to almost double it! Since 2000 our population growth has remained flat at just 1.4 percent. We also lost 8,552 students or 11.05 percent. Despite this non growth and lose of 11.05 of the school population the City hired 1400 more personnel. Department budgets have soared despite massive computerization. The City has created a news PR department to inflate achievements and compete with the private market so they could create there own spin on achievements. They have removed many millions from the general fund to subsidize special interest. They literally siphoned off $237 million in taxable real estate assets to support the TIF. The residential community accounts for 85% of the debt ceiling and debt service. Nearly $3 billion accounted for debt service payments and long term debt much of which supports special interests over the needs of 987 neighborhoods. About $500 million of debt services is attributable to interest payments, Can you come up with better que

Where is the 'cut the fat' option on the poll? It is not the function of government to provide jobs to the masses. But when you are a far left socialist, increasing services and increasing fees/ taxes is the only answer, I quess.

Should the city own a golf course? How about a sportsplex? Invest in private real estate ventures? Own a train system? I think all rational people can answer these questions.
If the city would stick to it's core functions and stay out of the private sectors business then we wouldn't be having this discussion. And if town center is such a wonderful investment why does the city have to share the risk? The shell game called TIF is nothing but a spin...all the money collected should be going to the general fund, not paying off loans to developers.

First of all, the idea of a new garbage fee which Virginia Beach is already exempt is really a new tax. Increasing real estate taxes is quite simply piling on to what are already artificially inflated property tax assessments. What next, an emissions or maybe an air tax?

Would those poor trash-collectors have to work a 40-hour week then? Oh, the horror! Last week I observed two trash collectors in the truck. One hopped out and used a pitchfork to gather the branches and the other one stood by and ate his breakfast sandwich while talking on a cell phone. Then the driver proceeds to run over the neighbors grass bags, bursting a few of them, picking up a couple and leaving the torn bags and grass all over the street as he drove away. I think there's a lot of room for budget-cuts, especially worthless/needless employees. This isn't rocket-science. I thought that's what supervisors were supposed to " SUPERVISE "!

cutting budgets? how about ending public/private endeavors? How about being fair to the other cities who are subsidizing your garbage pick up.
Cut the budget, and residents pay your fee without whining. The other cities are tired of subsidizing you and your whining. And Suffolk, you're next, and the empire builder Johnson. What a charlatan she is.

This posting is addressed to the Pilot employee(s) that created this and many other ill-conceived and fundamentally worthless opinion polls. Do you believe all your readers are lemmings? Why do present a false opinion poll with only one option – pay more money! You really should add one more option to this opinion poll? How about something like: Government should balance the budget by cutting wasteful and unnecessary spending. As a matter of fact, this excellent option could be in about 90% of these kinds of opinion polls. You know what else would go along nicely with this ‘government should tighten its own belt first’ theme - some solid investigative journalism on the part of the Pilot into the corruption of government officials and the constant wasting of tax dollars by those buffoons.

But wait--one cannot put out a fire w a hose if there were no government provided water service (not even to mention clean, drinkable water) Please let the neaderthals go away but NOT on publicly funded roads or dump their garbage for others (guess who) to take care of.
pulease--enough already Wake up and smell the pampered luxury you are too spoiled not to notice or appreciate. What about some undeveloped country where there are no services.... Oh, dear, THEY might be foreign and even speak something other than American.

Now is the time to stop asking for more and start figuring out how to make due with less than you get. More is not the solution to your problem. It will just get you deeper in trouble.