Who Gets Hurt

The sub-head of an Editorial from the Herald-Leader has me wondering if the editor actually looked at the editorial before writing the headline on Lexington’s proposed budget.

Ensure fees, taxes add up to good policy

The opinion piece included the following paragraphs.

Cuts include zeroing out the city contribution to the Day Treatment Center for at-risk teenagers. That comes after eliminating the Mayor's Training Center in the current year. In both cases, the mayor made the argument that those services could be provided elsewhere. The Day Treatment Center, the administration says, is better operated by the Fayette County Public Schools, but there's no agreement on that yet.

The proposed budget also zeroes out city contributions to legal aid, which defends poor people faced with criminal charges. That was planned after an agreement last year that Lexington's office would be folded into the state public defender system. But serious cuts at the state level are threatening the level of service in Lexington.

The cuts also include reductions in building inspection and code enforcement. Any guesses who suffers most when code enforcement can't do its job?

This is good policy?

This mayor appears to be taking care of his constituents. Any guesses who they aren’t?