Flint’s Revised Budget Still Has Massive Public Safety Cuts, Water Rate Hike [VIDEO]

Emergency Financial Manager Darnell Earley's revised 2-year budget for Flint officially proves that he cares more about money than your life.

It takes some pretty big cojones (or, as we say, someone that gives zero f---s) to tell the people of a city that has ranked among the most violent in America for more than the past decade that the best thing for them is 36 less police officers and 19 less fire fighters. Yet, that is exactly what Darnell Earley has done not once, but several times.

Earley first introduced his highly unpopular budget proposal in May, which also featured water rate hikes among its lesser points. However, the biggest public outcry was in response to the public safety cuts. So you would think that he would adjust those two items a bit to compromise with the demands of the people and city council, right? Wrong. The two least favorable parts of the budget proposal remained untouched in the final budget that Earley presented on Monday (6/23).

Why would Mr. Earley go completely against the will of the people? Because he wasn't voted into his office by the people and he isn't worried about re-election. He was appointed by Governor Rick Snyder to fix our city's financial woes and, apparently, that is the only thing he is concerned with fixing.

Does it matter that the average person living in the City of Flint pays $169.15/month for their water bill? Not to Earley. That's the highest water bill average in Genesee County and a great deal more than most other cities, including Detroit, who is in the national news this week for their water bills being too high at an average $75/month. Unlike Detroit, there isn't  a great deal of outsiders rallying to save our city... even though our coneys are way better. I mean come on, Detroit coneys are just chili dogs! You can get those at any 7-11, but I digress...

There's really no need to go into how dire the public safety situation is here in Flint. Hell, even those who don't live here can paint you a fairly accurate picture on that topic. Yet the man holding all the stones for our city seems to be the only one oblivious to that. It has been said there is no other place to cut the money from the budget, so remember to take solace in that when you're being robbed at gunpoint. Stay safe, my friends. It looks like we've got a bumpy two years ahead.

ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MI