Three questions will likely be answered this week when Lancaster city Mayor Rick Gray unveils his administration's proposed budget for 2009:

• How much will it cost to operate the city?

• Will taxes increase?

• Is Gray going to run for a second term next year?

The last one is harder to answer, but when the budget is unveiled Tuesday, political junkies will decipher it for any hidden clues as to whether the former defense attorney intends to seek re-election. So far, Gray's been mum about his plans.

This isn't to suggest Gray will play politics with the city's budget, especially now as the national economy takes one gut punch after another.

When it comes to taxes and spending, Gray and City Council may not have many choices. And judging by Gray's temperament, he's not the kind of pol to construct the city's budget — which provides for services like snow removal and vital protections like police and firefighters — with such a selfish approach.

Politically, however, putting together a municipal budget on the eve of a re-election year has an element of job security to it. Voters tend to remember the most recent budget and what hardship they derive rather than a mayor's first one.

If you're the mayor and you raise taxes for 2009, how high is too high for voters to stomach? If you cut spending, what services do you slash, are any jobs on the line and what constituents suffer the most?

Elections are about selling and marketing a product. Politicians go out in the street and on the airwaves trying to sell their vision to the electorate, who have capital to spend in the form of votes.

If you drastically raise taxes or cut services, your sales job is much tougher. If you put together a budget City Council doesn't like and the debate gets ugly, your re-election path gets rockier.

On the other hand, if Gray doesn't intend to run again, the potential political liabilities can be ignored when proposing the budget.

If Gray decides to seek a second term, there's little standing in his way (assuming there's no bombshells in the upcoming budget).

After three years in City Hall, the Gray administration has seen an absence of controversy, infighting and policy failures. Anything that's hurting the city's economy has more to do with problems on a national scale.

There seems to be no dissident member of City Council who emerges as intraparty rival, and Republicans have hardly any presence in city politics. As the city budget hearings loom, a second term is Gray's to lose. We'll know more this week.

Dr. Meily, revisited
Last week's column focused on the person who had the most profound influence on my career — the late Dr. Diane Meily, social studies teacher at Penn Manor —!\q and the reader response was stupendous.

One of Dr. Meily's family members wrote in to say: "I think of Diane many times every day but sometimes wonder if, after all her hard work, anyone still remembers what a wonderful person and great teacher she was."

Judging by the influx of e-mails this week, Penn Manor alumni and her former colleagues have not forgotten Dr. Meily.

Some students wrote to say they wished they hadn't taken her classes for granted, while others spoke about her influence on their careers.

One former student — now an actress in Hollywood — said she named her dog "Meily" because Dr. Meily was her favorite teacher.

The most poignant e-mail may have been this one from 1998 Penn Manor graduate Ben Coe:

"I remember singing the national anthem in the hall outside of Dr. Meily's class for interrupting another student and doing push-ups in front of that very same class for being (a smart aleck) during a debate. I also remember visiting Penn Manor for the first time after completing basic training (for the Marine Corps) and embracing the woman with tear-filled eyes (who) helped get me

there . ...

"When I returned home from Iraq, I remember I wanted to see her and share my experience with her, only to find out she had passed away. I was heartbroken. Not so much because I knew I would miss her but that there were others that did not get to know her like you and I did. She was the most feared, but for those of us that really knew her she was the most loved."

E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com