Before the city of Gary lays off another firefighter, authorizes another dime's worth of fees on its residents or shuts down children's parks, it needs to cut from the top.
The mayor and City Council should enact that symbolic gesture and give a good whacking to their own salaries, to acknowledge they really care and really can lead.
Despite a nominal pay cut, Mayor Rudy Clay makes $135,250 a year. That's more than Gov. Mitch Daniels is paid. Taxpayers should demand to know why, and what they get for it.
The nine council members each makes $27,530 annually. Members of the Indiana Distressed Unit Appeals Board expressed dismay last week at those salaries.
In 2009, the DUAB suggested some belt-tightening in the City Council's operating budget, which was $1.3 million, including $585,745 for personnel. That's more than Gary's Park Department budget. The DUAB said Gary's council budget was three times larger than council budgets for South Bend and Evansville.
Why does the council need all that cash? In South Bend, for example, the council doesn't have a staff. If a council member needs assistance, a worker in the city clerk's office provides support. Why can't that work in Gary?
In Gary, council members make about $10,000 more than their counterparts in Evansville and South Bend. DUAB board member Kyle Babcock, a Warsaw councilman, said he earns $4,800 as a city official.
Gary leaders need to be versed in making prudent, intelligent budget decisions. They've shown little proclivity for it, thus far. It took Post-Tribune stories exposing their cross-country travel excursions on the city's dime to stop that practice and to stop a "grants" fund in 2009.
Despite the criticism from DUAB members and in places like this one, there's still a disconnect between fiscal reality and Gary's leaders who should be developing reasons for people to move to Gary, not leave it.
So far, the exodus is winning.