Duluth Mayor Don Ness held court on several hot-button city issues Tuesday morning, including increased taxes and fees, the budget situation for 2009, retiree health care and his disappointment with the negative tone of city politics.
The mayor was the sole speaker at a forum sponsored by the Duluth Chamber of Commerce, which promised beforehand that no question would go unanswered. Ness held true to that promise, though at times he seemed frustrated.
Asked if the city was doing the right thing by raising taxes, Ness said the increases helped balance the budget in 2008 and 2009 while adding police and fire protection. The budgets, though, were largely balanced through cuts to city staff and services, he said.
"It amazes me that ... it seems as though in the discussion that we've already forgotten about the difficult decisions that we've made in cutting costs, and having to cut services that residents care about and depend on," he said. "It has been difficult and painful for city staff and the community."
On retirees, who the mayor is set to meet with next week to discuss retiree health care, the mayor again said he hoped to find a compromise on a benefit he said can't be sustained.
ADVERTISEMENT
"It's no longer realistic to have 50-cent copays on name-brand drugs," he said.
He said the retirees who filed a lawsuit blocking the city from changing the health care plans "represent a very narrow subset of retirees, the hard-liners who are not willing to compromise."
The mayor also took issue with Duluth's political tone.
"If we as a community choose a different political culture, if we choose to interact with one another in a much more constructive way," he said, "we are going to be much more successful in implementing the reform and innovation that we need to."
Ness said he's tried to stay above the political fray, but it hasn't been easy.
"In reflecting over the past year, I have a much greater appreciation for what Mayor Bergson went through and why he reacted the way he did in that combative nature," he said. "Because everything in your nature says to push back, to fight back and to poke back at the folks that are being critical."
Ness was asked what he's doing to increase the number of residents and taxpayers in the city.
"The primary thing is trying to put a better face on Duluth by addressing our very significant problems head-on and reforming business services in city government," he said, adding that he's trying to tell major city economic developers that city government "is getting their act together."
ADVERTISEMENT
"It's very difficult, if not impossible," he said, "for folks to sell Duluth properly if folks see dysfunction on the front page of the paper every day."
