Over the last few years I and others have repeatedly supported many ideas that &#x97; alas &#x97; have been unpopular with lots of Kansas City&#x92;s politicians, union leaders and city employees.</p><p>Among the main contentions:</p><p>&bull;&#xA0;Kansas City has way too many firefighters.</p><p>&bull;&#xA0;Police officers need to join the city&#x92;s health insurance plan.</p><p>&bull;&#xA0;Pension benefits need to be reduced for current and future city retirees.</p><p>&bull;&#xA0;The city shouldn&#x92;t ever boost property taxes without a public vote.</p><p>Of course, it&#x92;s one thing to pontificate on these matters in my columns and public television appearances.</p><p>It&#x92;s much different to be in a position of power at City Hall and say these things out loud, irritating the fire union, gun-toting police officers, thousands of city retirees and your own top staff.</p><p>Yet that&#x92;s just what City Manager Troy Schulte has done.</p><p>And bless him for it.</p><p>In a remarkably blunt budget message to Mayor Sly James, Schulte tackles some of Kansas City&#x92;s key issues in tight economic times.</p><p>Schulte&#x92;s message is an important one if you&#x92;re a Kansas City taxpayer, a local business leader, a Johnson County resident who works in the city or anyone else who uses the city&#x92;s streets, water, sewer system and other amenities.</p><p>The city manager is saying he understands the city needs to make dramatic changes, just like the private sector has done in the past.</p><p>His proposed $1.3 billion budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year includes frank talk on some of the important topics mentioned above.</p><p>For instance, Schulte points out &#x97; as I have contended since 2001 &#x97; that the decision made then to add more than 100 firefighters was unnecessary and costly. It was an action that cowed to the demands of the fire union and Fire Chief Smokey Dyer.</p><p>In this week&#x92;s budget message Schulte says:</p><p> &#x93;Eliminating 105 firefighting positions by reducing the number of personnel on each fire truck would allow the city to reduce the cost of staffing a 24-hour operation without impacting emergency medical response times, eliminating fire companies, eliminating skilled rescue units or closing fire stations.&#x94; And it would save $7.6 million a year.</p><p>Schulte also makes it clear he&#x92;s tired of the Police Department&#x92;s refusal to join the city&#x92;s health insurance plan. This has been discussed for years at City Hall, yet the goal of saving money for taxpayers has never gained traction with police officers who consider themselves special and want to keep their own insurance plan.</p><p>Schulte throws down a challenge to the department and the police board. He offers $5 million to be used for wage increases for cops if they come aboard with the city&#x92;s health insurance, but then adds:</p><p>&#x93;Should the police not choose to participate in this program, then these dollars could be redirected to other needs within the city such as infrastructure repair, and the (police) would need to identify other resources within their current budget to pay for salary increases for their staff.&#x94;</p><p>Schulte&#x92;s budget message also shows he&#x92;s now a big supporter of making reasonable changes to the city&#x92;s four pension systems, which are financially unsustainable. That puts him at odds with many current and former city workers.</p><p>Says the city manager: &#x93;I will be recommending as part of any long-term pension reform, that limitations should be placed on future benefit increases for current retirees, that active employees pay a greater share of the current actuarial cost of their retirement benefits, and that retirement benefits for future employees be reduced to ensure that the city can better control costs.&#x94;</p><p>Finally, it appears Schulte recognizes the city no longer can promise to issue general obligation bonds with the &#x93;no new taxes&#x94; mantra as a selling point. Right now, the city has to use millions in general fund dollars to support bonds issued back in 2004, because former Mayor Kay Barnes promised not to raise property taxes to pay for the bonds. </p><p>In calling for a $100 million general obligation bond election later this year to pay for capital improvements such as a new animal shelter and bridge repairs, Schulte says:</p><p>&#x93;The bonds should be voted <span class="bold">only</span> on the condition that debt service would be paid for solely from an increase in the debt levy portion of the city&#x92;s property tax levy.&#x94;</p><p>Troy Schulte has made some powerful enemies with his budget proposal. But he deserves support from Kansas Citians who would benefit from a lot of his plans if they eventually are approved by James and the City Council.