Donny Ness, City Councilor At-Large, gave a presentation about the state of Duluth’s budget on Wednesday. Donny’s presentation was excellent. He was personable, persuasive, and, above all, he stuck to the issues at hand. Donny laid out the budget problems in an orderly fashion and then suggested that all Duluthians would have to sacrifice to solve these problems.

Specifically, Donny strongly suggested that we all experience diminishing city services, increased taxes, and a great deal of frustration. While Donny mentioned several causes for the shortfall, including decreasing aid from the State of Minnesota, flat sales taxes, and poor investment returns, he concentrated on the core issue: retiree health care. This issue, according to Donny, is the main damage driver in our current and future budgets.

Councilor Ness, without malice, recounted how we got ourselves into such a mess. In particular, he mentioned the “politics of the times” that allowed the last two administrations to let the issue slide. At the same time, Donny highlighted the difficulties that the current administration faces.

Regardless of the circumstances leading to our current predicament, one can be most certain that we are only now starting to face up to the problem. Given the serious look on Councilor Ness’s face throughout his presentation, I can only guess that cleaning up the whole mess is going to take a much longer time that it took to make it.