Surplus?

The PG today reports news of an additional ”surplus” for the city. I dunno whether this gets added to the yearly total or what, and I don’t care. The finance director is saying we need to hoard all the surplus we can, Bill Peduto is predicting intense pain in just over two years and I remember the Mayor saying (in the past) he wanted to share some of the surplus with the citizenry. Someone over at the Burgh Report likened the situation to having $50 extra left in your pocket, after you make the minimum payments on mortgage, utilities, student loan, car payment and outsized credit card bills. If you put the fifty into anything, mortgage, student loan or credit card, it would help, but not much. If you hold onto the $50 as emergency money, it might help, but probably not much. You might as well buy $50 of cheap whiskey and anesthetize (not euthanize) yourself. It makes as much sense as any other behavior (well, maybe not, but I don’t care).