City budget and

community values

When I ran for City Council last fall I spoke of our city budget as a moral document. Budgets reflect our values as people and as a community.

Our mayor and council members are debating a budget proposal that proposes the following changes:

1. Two of the three positions in the Department of Housing and Human Services will
 be eliminated in 2008.

2. A 40 percent decrease in grants to agencies like PROP, Meals on Wheels, Teens Alone and others in the next two years.

The total amount of grants provided in 2007 is $198,870.00, or 1 percent of the total city budget.

None of the agencies rely solely on the grants from the city of Eden Prairie to function. It would be an exaggeration to say that Meals on Wheels or PROP, for example, will cease to exist. However, it will be difficult to raise funds from foundations or other sources when they understand that the community is unwilling to support these programs. They take the attitude that if the community doesn’t care, why should we?

The services provided by these programs help mainstream citizens not just people living on the margins or new immigrants. This past week we learned in the tragic collapse of a bridge that we are all only a moment or incident away from loss, injury, death or other needs that could result in a loss of home, job, income or life. 

Eden Prairie is a wealthy community by any economic standard. Are we also wealthy in community and in the spirit of the common good? What does this budget proposal say about our values and priorities? Is this human services budget slashing about the greed of a few vocal tax protesters? Is it about misdirected anger at illegal immigration in our country? Is it about race since some of the people helped by these programs are new immigrants who look different from the rest of us? Are some of the seniors and teens helped by these programs your friends or parents of someone you know?   

What can you do to turn around this unfortunate proposal? Write, e-mail and/or call Mayor Young and City Council members. Ask them to continue to "fully fund Housing and Human Services at the 2007 level" or "keep human services at 1 percent of the city budget."  

Express what you would like to see happen. Talk to friends, neighbors and co-workers. Tell them what has been proposed.  Ask them to write, e-mail and/or call. Attend the council meetings on Aug. 21 or Sept. 4 and let your voice be heard. As a community, we can afford to do better than this proposal.

Larry Piumbroeck

Eden Prairie

Editor’s Note: Larry Piumbroeck is former chair of the Eden Prairie Human Rights and Diversity Commission and currently serves as a commissioner in his second term. 

Issue of

philosophy

Out of an approximately $32 million annual budget, Housing and Human Services comprises a little more than 1 percent, rounded up to $400,000. Of this, approximately half is payroll; the other half is support to organizations such as PROP, Meals On Wheels, Cornerstone Advocacy Services, and services to seniors.

From what I can surmise, the City Council, led by Mayor Phil Young, wants to cut two of the three city staff positions on Housing and Human Services and cut city financial support to agencies serving city citizens by approximately 40 percent over the next two years.

The issue is not a fiscal/budgetary crisis; the issue is philosophy. According to Mayor Young, and the other Republicans on the council, providing even a meager 1 percent of budget to help our neighbors is not part of their philosophy of this city's core function.

To put these proposed cuts in perspective, the city earns approximately $1 million per year in profit from liquor store operations; profits which are used, according to the city’s Web site “to fund several city projects including the pavement management program, facility maintenance and replacement of playground equipment.”

Rather than a guiding philosophy of helping those in need best exemplified by “There but by the grace of God go I,” this cold-hearted conservatism can be best summed up by paraphrasing a notoriously pompous phrase – “Let them eat park.”

Tommy Johnson

Eden Prairie

Thanks for support

The Eden Prairie High School Chapter of the National Honor Society would like to thank Wal-Mart and our local community for their support and donations for the NHS-sponsored car wash on July 22.

More than $550 was raised during the event. Proceeds will be donated to the family of Connor Charles Maruska for the advancement of the Omegaven treatment that is saving Connor’s life. Connor is the infant son of Eden Prairie High School graduate Andy Maruska.  

Shortly after Connor was born, doctors discovered that he had a kinked intestine. Subsequent surgeries left him with short bowel syndrome. He was not able to absorb the essential nutrients in food, and the intravenous fluids he was receiving were slowly causing damage to his liver.

Unlike other treatments, Omegaven does not cause liver damage in infants. Currently permitted by the Food and Drug Administration for use in special medical cases, Omegaven has saved the lives of babies with no ill effects and is expected to become the new standard of care for babies that need intravenous nutrition.

The Omegaven treatment, however, is still relatively unknown to the medical community. For Connor to be treated with Omegaven, he was transferred from an Arizona hospital to the Children’s Hospital of Boston.

Connor’s family hopes to raise awareness about Omegaven so that more infants may be saved. For more information about Connor’s condition and the successes of treatment with Omegaven, please visit Connor’s Web site at www.connorcharles.com [2].

Adam Lueck, presidentJulie Smith, officer and event coordinatorEPHS Chapter of NHS