Mayor Cory Booker cuts toilet paper from city budget
Newark’s mayor makes a desperate attempt to fill a budget hole of 70 million dollars and is cutting the town’s budget so harsh that he even decided to cut toilet paper from the budget list of 2010.
Mayor Cory Booker declared in an emergency press conference on Wednesday that everything that is not connected to the actual purpose of serving the city, which is providing safe streets and providing fire protection will be cut off. The reductions include the most usual things that the city offices were provided with, and that means even not buying toilet paper for the city offices. The work week will be cut to four days out of five for non uniformed city workers, which means a 20 percent cut in the salary as well, no city holiday decorations and no more city pools.
These extreme measures will probably be effective from August on and will add to the budget a considerable sum, of 10 to 15 million dollars. The city entered the budget hole after the city council failed to create a Municipal Utilities Authority, which was supposed to be helping Mayor Booker to balance the budget. Due to the fact that Newark could issue bonds on the Authority, it would have created a cash flow that would have covered the immediate deficit. Booker accepts the council’s decision, but says that it leaves Newark with a big budget problem.
