Opinions probably diverge on the question of what a full-time AAPS reporter should be paid – but take whatever number you believe to be realistic, and that’s the number that’s needed. And then do the math on roughly 50K households in Ann Arbor. That gives you a rough idea of the average amount each household would need to contribute annually through voluntary subscription, in order to fund an AAPS reporter. But of those 50K, subtract those who will not see any benefit to having anyone cover anything. And subtract those from the 50K who will not see the logic of paying for something they can get without paying for it (until they can’t get it at all). And of those 50K, some will identify some conditional statement on which their voluntary subscription will depend (if there’s schools coverage; if there’s sports coverage; if there’s crime coverage; if there’s entertainment coverage; if there’s weather/traffic updates; if there’s letters to the editor, if there’s op-eds that mirror exactly my thoughts).

I suppose it’s fair to characterize what I’ve written above as just a long way of changing the conversation from “What is the dollar figure, Dave?” But to name some dollar figure (instead of offering a way for readers to come up with their own dollar figure) frames the issue in a way that doesn’t seem likely to lead to sustainability. Naming a dollar figure invites this framing of the problem: Here’s a fundraising target, now let’s go out and drum up that cash, okay, now thank god that’s done.

Consider, for example, the snack table at the Workantile coworking space. You can take a snack without putting a dollar into the basket. You can even do so repeatedly in kind of a free-ranging snacking style. And if enough people did that the snacks would disappear, because the guy who takes the money in the basket and buys more snacks wouldn’t be able to do that. And if that happened, there’d be a big meeting about it, brows would be knit and fingers would be waggled, and some cash would be scraped together to get a fresh pile of snacks. But that would not solve the snack funding problem. Key to a sustainable stream of snacks is the discipline on the part of the snackers to chip in their dollar when they take a snack from the table. That’s the kind of culture that keeps snacks on the table at Workantile. And that’s the kind of culture that might eventually lead to sustained coverage of AAPS by The Chronicle.

What I’ve been impressed by over nearly the last five years, and am grateful for, is the fact that there are many civic/government affairs snackers in Ann Arbor who put more money in the basket than the value of the snacks they take out. But based on nearly five years of experience at this, my sense is that the balance of those kind of snackers to free ranging snackers is not optimal.

Out of curiosity, how much does The Chron need to raise to cover AAPS?

I am happy to see my name on the list of contributors each month. It gives me a sense of participation in the great work Dave and Mary are engaged in here. I get to contribute but don’t have to stay to the end of meetings that go into the wee hours of the morning.

I encourage every reader to acknowledge the importance of this unbiased source of political reporting by signing up for a subscription or just regularly donating. Your contribution should be based on how much you would miss the reporting if the Chronicle stopped publishing (hint: the contribution should be a lot).

Unfortunately, the comments on the other site are so toxic that it negates any improvements in coverage.