With the withdrawal of a controversial solid waste fee from the proposed 2007-08 city budget, one might think that the adoption of the city's budget plan would now be easy to accomplish. That is yet to be seen, especially in this, an election year.

Clearly, the most controversial part of the budget proposed by Auburn City Manager Mark Palesh was a solid waste fee that, for numerous reasons, chief among them a lack of political support, had to be withdrawn from the overall budget plan he proposed.

The 11-percent property tax reduction he proposed based on this new fee, for the most part, is wiped away. The $1.2 million that would have been saved by property taxpayers and shifted to a broader base that would have included some 2,300 housing units is merged back into the general fund resulting in no net savings. What is left of the city manager's proposed budget changes overall, are largely a combination of 16.5 full-time and part-time cuts in the non-public safety sector. Those changes are in the general fund. Also at issue are increases in the rates for both water and sewer fees. Keeping the latter separate, most of the areas of discussion, debate and change may be with those positions within the general fund.

What comes next is up to the city council. Palesh would like, like all managers, as little tinkering as possible to occur with what he proposed. It is now up to the mayor and city councilors to determine how much tinkering or, for that matter, how much wholesale change they would like to see in the overall budget proposal.

Public comments by some members of city council have indicated that they want to change some of what he has proposed. These include saving at least one part-time position and, in another case, cutting an unfilled full-time manager that the city manager has within the budget.

Until recently the budget process has been to have a period of presentations by city staff and questioning by members of the city council. The next step is to see both what type of consensus can be reached in making any budget modifications and then acting on them in some orderly manner. Last year, more controversial cuts were put forward by then City Manager John Salomone that generated broad opposition. This time around there are no cuts that will get the public to cry out for restoration. The result may be trying to create consensus on a couple of key areas where a majority can agree - something that does not seem all that clear, with three members of the city council seeking to be on the ballot this November.

The key to any discussion is getting three votes for any line item change, and making sure that there are at least three votes when it comes to a final vote on the final budget package, which will come less than a month from now.

Cosentino, a former mayor of Auburn, can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com