News from Patrick Flynn

After orchestrating a successful amendment reducing the Anchorage School District‘s budget by about $3.9 million I find myself in an interesting place.  I’ve received several “thank you” e-mails from Anchorage residents who, previously, have been less than appreciative of my efforts on the Assembly.  Yesterday Eddie Burke, whom I’ve known for many years, invited me to appear on his radio show for the first time.  And a friend who spends far more time monitoring internet activity than me reported:

Dunno if you do the facebook thing, but man, the liberals are excoriating you for the ASD budget cut… which means maybe you did something right?

I suppose I should appreciate the nice things people are saying and I’m happy to take any blame – ASD even has a web site where you can make budget comments –  but I can’t help wonder if it’s all much ado about nothing.  While I think it was positive to pass the school budget with a 9-1 (rather than 5-5) vote you may recall my mentioning that, should the Assembly not agree on a spending level, the School Board‘s version of the budget goes into effect.  Because the Acting Mayor called me Tuesday afternoon and asked that I not put forth the amendment reducing the school district’s budget I can’t help wondering if he’ll veto our budget ordinance?

If he does, and if the Assembly can’t find eight votes to override the veto (I’m betting we can’t), then my read of the charter is that we default to the School Board’s version of the budget.  At that point whatever was gained, or lost, by supporting the budget cut becomes moot.  Life is funny that way…

Regards,

Patrick