Hey Detroiters, guess what, I don't know the details of all the budget fights, but I have a single thought about the process: Go with the budget that cuts the most!

Why? Well, it's only going to get worse, and the longer you delay the cuts, the more difficult it will be on down the line. The city's schools are already run by the state-appointed emergency manager, just as the City of Pontiac is run.

With a dwindling population base, massive unemployment and almost non-existent property values, Detroit's budget woes are only to worsen in coming years — until someone on the private side invests money to build some industry and provide some jobs. City, county and school jobs cannot maintain an economy, as we learned in Eastern Europe.

It's only going to get worse for all us in Michigan, it seems, so to get through this recession (or this slow-to-develop recovery), we must cut what we can now in order to figure out what we can live with and what we can live without in coming years.

When revenues go up, the budgets can be expanded or any new taxes can be ended.