Mayor Sharon McShurley will give her State of the City address from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Carnegie Library in downtown Muncie. Much like President Barack Obama's State of the Union address last night and Gov. Mitch Daniels' State of the State address last week, the mayor will address the current condition of Muncie during the last year and plans she has for the upcoming year.
I don't know why the mayor needs two hours to describe the state of the city when I can do so in one word: deplorable.
Unemployment in the city has skyrocketed. Unemployment has increased nationwide, but it seems to be hitting certain areas of the country harder than others. Muncie is one of those, with an increase of unemployment in the last year from 7.3 percent to 9.8 percent compared to 6.5 percent to 9.4 percent nationwide.
That 2.5 percent increase over the last year means the loss of thousands of jobs in Muncie.
This has directly led to another problem facing Muncie: the loss of population, and therefore a loss in the tax base. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that between July 2000 and July 2007, 3,000 people left Muncie. Local estimates project the number has increased during the last few years as a result of the deterioration of the city and its economy.
The cost to run the local government doesn't automatically decrease in relation to the population. This means those costs are spread out over a smaller group of people, creating another problem Muncie ran into in the past year: a budget crunch.
There are only two ways to solve a budget crunch. One is to increase taxes; the other is to cut costs. Muncie used a combination of both, although very few have agreed with those changes.
One method the mayor used to 'solve' the problem was to close two fire stations and lay off 32 firefighters. Then, the mayor initially didn't want to apply to the SAFER grant that would have brought back 25 of those 32 laid-off firefighters because she was worried about what it may cost several years down the road.
With a smaller population, fewer services are needed, but the cuts were far more drastic than many deemed necessary. There may not be a Muncie several years down the road if the current state of the city doesn't improve soon.
Another solution was to implement a water rate hike that increased the cost by 31.5 percent. The county council then imposed a wheel tax, which is a $25 annual tax for normal sized cars and trucks. My issue isn't with the tax per se, but the combination of all the tax and rates hikes throughout the year.
The budget crunch led to another problem that has plagued Muncie for years, but seemed to be especially ugly this year: the discord between the city council and the mayor. The council proposed a budget for the city, which was then vetoed by the mayor, then subsequently overridden by the council.
As part of that back and forth, the Muncie Animal Shelter was scheduled to close and a third of the city's streetlights were scheduled to be shut off.
No business wants to set up shop in Muncie if people can't see their way to the store, if pedestrians feel unsafe walking if the sun isn't shining (which it hardly does October through March) and animals are roaming the streets wild. No new businesses means no new jobs.
Fortunately, both sides decided to quit being so stubborn and compromise, keeping the shelter open and the lights on.
Additional byproducts of the fight between the mayor and the council were the reductions in the budgets of road repair and snow removal. Muncie roads already sucked. How is cutting the repair budget going to help make them better? One can say, though, that their continued existence could be considered an economic stimulus for tire shops.
But in all seriousness, you can't revitalize the economy when people can't get from point A to point B if an inch of snow has fallen. Plus, with fewer emergency services in operation, it already takes longer for them to respond to a call. Poor road conditions only worsen this problem.
However, not everything in the past year has been bad. The mayor has been extremely supportive of the Muncie Action Plan and getting input from the community on unique ways to improve the city, much like President Jo Ann Gora is doing in regard to the university's budget cuts.
As I've already mentioned, the animal shelter is staying open, the streetlights are staying on and some of the laid-off firefighters are possibly being rehired.
There are many things the city can do to reverse the current downward slide. One would be to work more closely with the university. Most college towns the size of Muncie have a strong bond between the community and the university. This seems to be lacking here.
Another idea would be to restore a sense of pride to its residents. This can be done by stricter zoning enforcement, resulting in fewer blighted properties, an increase in city funds and an overall increase in the beauty of the city.
There are many great things in Muncie: its arts scene, university and history to name a few. Whatever Mayor McShurley ends up saying in tonight's address will mean little if there is no action.
Write to Frank at frhood@bsu.edu.
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