Budget debate in the streets

This week, Cebu City residents will bear witness to another tug of war between Mayor Michael Rama and an unfriendly City Council.

This   involves the mayor’s proposed P11.8-billion budget for 2012.

The budget war is heating up with the mayor’s decision to have tarpaulin banners set up around the city explaining how he plans to use public funds for priority projects and services.

The plan obviously is a bid to stir public support for a budget proposal under fire in the City Council still under the control of his predecessor, Tomas Osmeña.

At first, councilors said they would not be obstructionists in reviewing the budget,  even if Rama had deserted their ranks in the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan.

That view flew out the window when Councilor Margot Osmeña  saw a zero budget  for the  Cebu City Commission for the Welfare and Protection of Children, which she has headed for several years as first lady.

A P6-million outlay expected for the children’s commission  instead went to the “special services” under the Office of the Mayor, as Rama  wants to transfer the commission’s  funding to the Department of Social Welfare and Services to administer.

Margot, whom everyone knows is BO-PK’s bet for mayor in 2013, unless Tomas himself runs again,  won’t be alone in complaining.

Other councilors are finding themselves  stripped of control of key budgets with the reorganization of commissions  and special bodies under the mayor’s office.

The “centralization” of power is Rama’s response to being left alone to steer City Hall without enough allies in the council.

With no political machine like the BO-PK behind him, the mayor is taking  the budget battle to the streets and the bar of public opinion.

How effective are tarps in explaining the complexity of the 2011 annual budget?

Would ordinary residents bother to read, much less absorb, the  laundry list of projects the Rama administration wants to implement?

As the council aptly pointed out, while the goals are noble, what funding source will support a whopping P11.8-billion budget?

The scrutiny will intensify in ongoing budget hearings.

While the mayor waved away the carping by saying it’s all right to  dream big, in this case his dreams should be grounded in  specific reality.

The revenue  target Rama set is already making the city treasurer hyperventilate, while a plan to open a P2-billion credit line looks like another loan obligation ready to burden Cebu City, with its 300-hectare South Road Properties still taking off.

It will take more than a Fuente Osmeña festooned with tarpaulin banners to reassure taxpayers that finances of the city are being expertly handled.