The Art of the Ann Arbor City Budget

[The Northerner]

The debate in Ann Arbor, where firefighters are being laid off due to a multimillion dollar budget deficit, is over an $850,000 piece of art.

That's how much the city has agreed to pay German artist Herbert Dreiseitl for a three-piece water sculpture that would go in front of the new police and courts building right by the City Hall.

The city has the money to do it because in 2007, it agreed to set aside for public art 1 percent of money that went into capital improvement projects that were $100,000 or larger. Most capital projects involve streets, sewers and water.

Ann Arbor City Council member Stephen Kunselman, a Democrat, opposed the art deal.

"I think it is incredibly insensitive," Kunselman said. "It is insensitive to the staff and their morale. It is insensitive to the community. There are people out there struggling financially, and here we are spending a large amount of money on a piece of art."

Kunselman said the city is also eliminating the solid waste coordinator from the budget, which oversees trash pickup, and hiring an art coordinator.

Read more: http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/13219

[Wednesdays]

1. I'm all for supporting the arts

But here, many people's livelihoods are on the line. If only they could pay the artist maybe a half-years' wages, with a promise to do something big once the city is back in the black.

[zipplewrath]

2. Unfair comparison

They are comparing annual salaries, with capital expenditures. Capital expenditures are suppose to be long term assets, i.e. something that will last years. An employees cost, over the same length of time, would be huge. An employee could easily reach $850K costs to the employer in about 7 years (loaded rate not the flat salary) That piece of art will probably last 3 decades.

The more interesting note is that they are firing a coordinator in one department, and hiring in another. How's that swap done?