Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert will commemorate the inaugural season of the Duluth Harbor Monsters by hosting the team at City Hall and presenting a proclamation in the Mayor's Reception Room today at 1 p.m.
Subsequently, at 2 p.m., Reinert will join the leadership of the Chester Bowl Improvement Club for a major announcement at the Chester Bowl Chalet.
The City of Duluth administration cannot warn taxpayers about a projected $5.5 million deficit while refusing to explain a recurring $4.5 million funding stream redirected from general operations. The account now has nearly $9 million.
Duluth residents should not accept a budget narrative built only around the bad news. Transparency requires more than explaining the size of the shortfall. It requires identifying every option, every revenue decision and every pool of existing or reasonably anticipated financial capacity.
Early-term labor agreements, sluggish revenue growth and familiar levy politics have left City Hall confronting a projected $5.5 million deficit.
With Minnesota currently importing 100% of its fossil fuels, solar power adds “homegrown” renewable sources of energy to the building and the state’s electrical grid.
That is the broad Hermantown picture entering training camp starting Aug. 17. Football and girls cross-country should expect to contend for section championships. Boys soccer and volleyball return enough proven talent to make deep playoff runs realistic.
The council is not an advisory committee to the mayor. It is a separate branch of city government, obligated to scrutinize administrative proposals, protect public money and represent residents whose voices cannot be heard from behind the closed doors of City Hall.
