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Scal1024 your comment, "Services would have to be cut, pensions/ benefits would have to be trimmed and property taxes may even have to go up" is exactly right. However based on these statistics there really is only one area where expenses need to be reduced.

Over the last ten years from 2008 budget through the 2017 just adopted budget, the total increase in city spending will be $24,411,540.

Of that total $12,772,206 or 52% of that money is spent on Active employee benefits (salary, healthcare, sick pay bonus, longevity bonus, etc).

$12,261,646 or 50% is spent on Retired Employee Benefits (pension and healthcare).

Now anyone looking at these two figures will say 52% + 50% = 102%. That doesn't make sense. It does because all the other line items in the budget have been cut $622,312 or the 2% figure over the last ten years. So what is happening and will continue to happen is that unless property taxes increase at higher amounts or non-tax revenue increase enough to cover the annual increases to benefits, all other areas of the budget will have to be cut.

The only way the city can begin to address increasing funding to everything else beside retired and active employee benefits, is to enact reforms to cut those expenses.