I had to laugh when I read the letter regarding Dave Kaplan and the 2009 budget.

Apparently the Beals (Mysty and John) are cherry-picking votes on prioritization rather than on the overall budgets they claim are "bloated."

Dave Kaplan has been one of the strongest advocates on the Des Moines City Council for balancing the operating budget with on-going revenues (not one-time revenues) and in prioritizing what the city provides in the way of services.

The Beals' candidate, Susan White, has strongly opposed budgeting by priorities, wishing to continue services by using one-time monies that should be going to such things as road paving, buying emergency generators for the senior center and city hall, and for capital projects.

Don't believe me? Just check out the video recordings of council meetings over the past three years at the city's Web site at http://66.175.4.144/city gov/ city council/vidoes/videos.html.

Look for meetings in the months of November and December and you can decide for yourself whether it's Dave Kaplan or Susan White who is trying to prioritize our spending and pass sustainable budgets.

The Beals also forget to mention the fact that nearly all of Dave's "additions" to the budget were accompanied by proposed cuts or reductions in other areas. That's called balancing, and it's called integrity.

Dave did support the hiring of a state lobbyist-the result of which kept state lawmakers from taking away over $240,000 in crime-free housing revenues to the city and in fighting off tens of thousands of dollars in increased marina tidelands leases.

That's a great value in protecting our operating budget, compared to the $30,000 contract of the lobbyist.

Dave voted for the federal lobbyist back in 2006, but has strongly opposed renewing the approximately $75,000 budget expenditure because he feels the one-time money should be used for one-time expenditures, such as emergency power generators for the senior center or city hall.

That's called prioritizing. Unlike Susan White who has supported these precariously balanced budgets, based on using over $1 million in one-time money.

In the end, this election boils down to hard work, common sense and integrity. Dave Kaplan has those qualities and deserves to be re-elected.

Wayne Corey
Des Moines