Comment Up
Nothing new occurred last night during the Second Public Hearing on setting the millage of $5.49. With the Fire Rescue, it brings up the total millage to $8.95. The budget was approved, nothing changed. This commission believes that it is perfectly A-OK to rob reserves to balance the Budget. Commissioner Amoroso even stated that he does that in his own business when he is short. The problem is, reserves are never replenished and it is money that belongs to the taxpayers.
Vice Mayor Maxwell wanted to know where all the multi-millions went during 2006 through 2008 when property values were sky high, saying that there was an unprecedented amount of money that is gone. After complaining about all the missing money, he then went on to state, "You can't take it with you. Sometimes you have to take reserves and plug a hole." If Maxwell would hire an Internal Auditor, perhaps we could find out where the money went.
Taking money out of reserves to balance the budget is no
way to run the city. To take money out of the Simpkin Trust for library
operations is breaking a Trust set up for library capital improvements. To take
$700,000 from the billboard settlement money that has been shifted around from a dedicated fund to operations,
is no way to run our city. We can’t continue to rob Peter to pay Paul.
My suggestion last night was to continue funding the
conservation fund through our Utility and put that 1.4% back into the utility
and then transfer the same amount of money to operations instead of using our savings. It is a small monthly utility tax and it is based on consumption--those who use more KWh pay more. It is a way to raise revenue without hurting the average consumer who is paying only $1.96 per 1,000KWh. We can then eliminate it next year from the utility bill if we can. Also, cutting
the electric bill by 5% is too much this year when we have a budget shortfall. Cut that 5 in half and take money of like amount and transfer to operations until such time property values go up to a
sustainable level to fund our operations.
Negotiate with the Unions. Roll back pension benefits and
change retirement to age 65. Collect the past-dues on our utility bills
amounting to millions. Collect from those cities owing us on the sub-regional
sewer system. Cut more.
Do not fund new positions this year. Do with what we have. Do not spend more than we receive, a concept that fell on deaf ears last night.
Although McVoy and Mulvehill voted against the budget because of steps that were not taken last year on the fire assessment as well as robbing from the reserves, I want to state one more time my thoughts on this fire assessment. It was an unfair tax because rich and poor would be paying the exact same amount to fund pensions for the fire department. It was not an assessment for services but for pensions. Taxes need to be equitable based on property values and/or income or in the case of a conservation tax, consumption.
If this was a Susan Stanton budget, Maxwell would have voted it down. He knows it. Everyone knows it.
ReplyDeleteMaxwell's numbers were off base, and in some cases, way off base. If he could read a budget, he would know where the money went. There was a sharp increase in union pension expense in that time period, about which Mr Baldwin did not raise a red flag. No one did anything about it until Susan Stanton tried to stem the bleeding.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you go into the budget and YE audit docs and piece together the PBSO and PBCFR mergers, you will see that they cost us up front money. I don't recall exactly, but I'm pretty sure that the insurance savings that Vespo was so sure of never actually materialized. The merger increased insurance costs instead of decreasing.
Also, I think that capital funds may be included in one of the several random "budget" numbers that Maxwell was flinging about. Capital projects will increase and decrease budget numbers dramatically, depending on timing of transfers and expenditures. Beacuse Gov't accounting is not accrual-based, it can be misleading to the lay person.
I have researched this use of reserves in the 2008-2009 budget years. The burn looks pretty typical of most other municipalities that find themselves in the same boat as Lake Worth, only we managed our debt a lot better. Funny, Greenacres is about the only city that is doing ok.
One final jab: If Maxwell really wants to know WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MONEY (and I think it's funny that people act like it just vaporizes with no audit trail) he should have asked his friend and endorsee Retha Lowe. She was at the meeting and made public comment last night. She was also a budget rubber stamp on the dais during the extended time period that Maxwell is questioning. Wouldn't you love to hear THAT in-depth explanation?! Ha.
The Mayor likes to remind everyone what her day job is - marketing, branding, advertising.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't she help the city find new ideas for increased revenue?
She's been here since Nov and ran on her marketing background.
We're waiting.