Carey Davis was just elected mayor in this crisis-ridden city, San Bernardino, California, a city that is bankrupt. The voters literally kicked all of the bums out and elected new leaders.
Davis, a businessman and political novice, ran in part on a campaign to reduce the city's pension obligations. In an interview in November, when he became one of two mayoral candidates, he said the city had to cut spending on police and fire departments, currently more than 70 percent of the budget. He could have been talking about Lake Worth.
We have budgeted $15,057,593 for police and $2,890,807 for fire services in a total budget of $29,888,060 presented in the first budget amendment of January 7, 2014. Pension plans are taking a big bite of our apple. The Collins Institute has already reported that pension plans in Riviera Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter, Boynton Beach and Lake Worth earned D’s.
Public safety issues are always in the news...crime all over the County especially in Lake Worth where the reporting is downplayed. Actually, the Post must have given up on our city as no one is covering it. Why would they send down a reporter when our meetings get out in 1.5 hours with important issues kept under wrap and crime is getting commonplace?
What Lake Worth describes as "non-controllable" costs, and like San Bernardino, take nearly 70% of our operating revenues which include healthcare and employee costs. The remaining 30% is spent on fixing pot holes and this commission has a plan for that--Lake Worth 20/20-- to fix the infrastructure and attract developers on taxpayer debt. The commission has been silent on this roads/infrastructure and Park of Commerce plan of late but look to see it revived after the election. The City has always been intimidated by the unions and the last thing it wants is a legal hassle. They would rather look to you for the "fix."
The unions, along with pensions, public safety and employee costs will continue to be our albatross.
3 comments:
Teacher's salaries are tied to the rock-headed little idiots that they are supposed to teach. Why not tie our police officers salaries to the towns or districts where they are assigned? Crime goes up-your salary goes down. Crime goes down -your salary goes up.
New officers and firemen must not be promised ridiculous pensions. Present pensions must be incrementally reduced by a few percent every year, with fair warning given for a couple of years before this starts. A maximum reduction could be 10%.
The pension obligations are a big problem and not one that were created by this admin and not one that was solved by going to PBSO. This is a problem all around the country where more and more tax dollars are going to fund retirement costs for past employees and current employees and less and less is going to pay for actual services.
How can a city address the shortfall such that more money goes to services? Declare bankruptcy and get rid of the pensions, although that is a complicated process and one that creates a whole new set of problems. Increase taxes on residents, at present our mill rate is already just about as high as it can go, so we either need to increase value/assessments or we need to start assessing property owners with fees rather than taxes (i.e. the fire fee). Increase revenue in other ways, i.e. fines, code enforcement (I'm a big fan of code turning into a profit center b/c maybe that would mean that they were actually doing soemthing), fees that are paid for licenses and other fee based services, i.e. increase fees for parking, recreation, etc.
We shall see if the new code ordinances have any teeth. In the past, owners would ignore them altogether driving up fines in the hundreds of thousands. It's been a long standing joke on our city.
All those people renting their places need rental licenses and most are NOT getting them when the utility bill remains in their name.
Post a Comment