Councilwoman Girvan has taken the position that the City does not have a revenue problem it has a spending problem. The almost $70 million spent on capital projects is not the issue but rather the example provided for these expenditure excesses is Auto Chalk which had a one time equipment cost to the city of $100 thousand. Lets take a moment to compare this expenditure with the $108 thousand spent on the LEOS benefit for regional jail guards that the councilwoman supported.
I would call your attention to Bryan Metts' blog piece on Auto Chalk entitled, “Auto Chalk Love it/Hate It,” http://burgnews.blogspot.com/2008/03/autochalk-love-ithate-it.html which does a little math to show that the City is getting a return on its investment. In addition, it has allowed for the expansion of coverage to include the residential area around the train station helping to alleviate parking problems there as well. And if it wasn’t working so well we could sell both the vehicle and equipment and get some of our money back and reduce operating expenditures.
Last May Councilwoman Girvan voted to give regional jail guards the LEOS retirement benefit that is costing the city an additional $100,000 A YEAR. We were told that the expenditure was necessary to allow the jail to keep existing guards and help to hire new ones.
I remember when we were told that the Regional Jail was going to make the region money. Well, as with the promise of a jail cranking out the dollars, so the claim that LEOS was going to make a difference proves to be a little over optimistic. This year’s Regional Jail budget request includes a 5% salary increase-- for what? --To keep existing guards and help hire new ones. There is no raise for City employees in our current budget.
The LEOS expenditure beats Auto Chalk by a knockout when it comes to the bigger waste of City tax dollars.
The second card of this event is Councilwoman Girvan’s recent complaint that reducing funds in other accounts—Cowan Blvd, and the Executive Plaza—to assist with balancing the budget and acquiring some trucks for Public Works showed bad planning. I would assume making a $200,000 appropriation in the middle of a budget year should also be considered bad planning.
In December 2006 Councilwoman Girvan actively supported giving the Area Museum an additional $200,000 above what the City had promised. The point was made by Councilman Dixon that it was bad planning to make such an appropriation in the middle of a budget year. Now where did I hear that before?
Coming soon………Education and Taxes a question or two for Mr. Huff.
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3 comments:
Touche - I missed the LEOS payments. Oh, and Metts (not Metz), but everyone messes it up so don't worry about it.
BRYAN--Change made on the name. Please accept my apologies. It's the history major in me. Metz--major German fortified city in Alaace-Lorranie during WWI.
And right outside Metz was the most important battle of the Franco-Prussian war: Gravelotte-St. Privat.
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