What is wrong with Ray?

Really — I’d like to know.

What is wrong with that man? Does he do stupid things, without regard for the consequences, just to piss people off?

Cutting funding for youth education and activities programs, while simultaneously cutting funding to the district attorney, and public defenders, is a recipe for disaster which is sure to secure the New Orleans brand: #1 in crime.

So why shouldn’t Ray Nagin have to provide a logical rationale for why he’s cutting those programs, and not others? Forget about his petulant little spat with the City Council. Where’s Nagin’s accountability to the people? Furthermore, though he might prefer to race-bait than justify his actions, this isn’t a black or white issue. Fighting crime and creating opportunity for New Orleans youth are both issues which are righteous, necessary, and which benefit the well-being of the entire city.

How about putting the entire city budget on the city’s Web site, so citizens can determine for themselves what kinds of cuts they’d like to make?

I’m not talking about the worthless P.R. document Nagin posted, filled with such ingratiating, gratuitous fluff as, “we have tipped.” No, I’m talking about a detailed balance sheet, with detailed revenue forecasts, and detailed expenditures, by department, and including the necessary staffing levels, capital expenditures and estimated maintenance costs of existing public infrastructure and facilities, and yes, a detailed accounting and justification for every, yes every, contract paid to vendors providing products or services. Hey, it’s all going online, right? So it shouldn’t be difficult for the city to post this kind of information electronically, should it? Should it?

So again I ask, with respect to Ray Nagin’s budget cuts to youth and criminal justice programs, what, exactly, is Ray Nagin’s problem?