Forgot the 'could be worse' part

In last night's post on Tuesday's City Council meeting, I talked about the Cloud of Doom hanging over City Hall, but not on the silver lining.

I swear, it's there, even if it's only a sliver. But at 12:30 a.m. after a raft of Simpler Times, it's a little harder to see.

The silver lining is that the city of Tracy isn't as down the hole as a lot of other cities. There's still a few million dollars in the rainy day fund that can help bridge small budget gaps for another couple years, putting us light years ahead of Stockton. And Vallejo — it of bankruptcy fame — isn't even in our galactic neighborhood.

Furthermore, if the city can survive on a bread-and-water diet for a couple years without the place going completely to hell, when the economic picture gets rosier Tracy will have a lean, less wasteful base on which to expand.

There, that's better. You may now resume rending garments and gnashing teeth.