Council Budget Cuts On The Way
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 10/23/08 @ 10:32 pm - Filed Under City Council, Featured
Budget cuts from the city council members are due tomorrow and they will be voted on next Tuesday. After watching tonight’s meeting and speaking with a few of the members afterwards I am beginning to gain confidence that this council will do the right thing and cut the budget by 3%.
The mayor has not taken his budgetary responsibilities seriously and has pushed the entire problem into the hands of the city council. All I have to say to the mayor is, be careful what you wish for. The individual councilmembers have come up with several millions of dollars in cuts and they may not be areas the mayor would like to see reduced.
At this point the best thing the council could do is to cut the budget by a flat percentage and tell the mayor it’s his responsibility to prioritize and find the specific line items to cut. Obviously the department heads and other professionals are in a much better position than city council to identify the most cost-efficient cuts.
The mayor has abdicated his responsibility thus far but next Tuesday is D-day (or is it B-day?) and the council should force him to make the tough decisions. It would be irresponsible of this council to demand the mayor cut the budget without providing recommendations but that’s not what’s happening here. Each councilmember is submitting millions in cuts and the mayor should be able to utilize their input, as well as from his staff, to cut 3% of the city budget.
And just remember that if you are an Allen County resident you should be paying attention. If the city doesn’t solve their financial problems then they will most certainly raise the income tax. And if the city raises it then everybody in the county pays. That may not sound fair but that’s just the way it is - you can thank your state legislator.
I do know this, next Tuesday will be one interesting meeting…
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9 Responses to “Council Budget Cuts On The Way”
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Jeff,
Could you give us some key points from tonight and share what you can. I missed watching the meeting tonight so I have no clue as to what went on.
Reading between the lines that some on City Council may adopt a modified version of what I posted in how I would do it. My post was based on my twisted sense of humor at times. That City Council may make cuts he may not like. Which should be followed because it could be REAL UGLY next year. Next year could be around a $6 million dollar hit and the council needs to show if the Mayor doesn’t want to take a leadership this year then here is what may be coming next year.
JQ,
I showed up about 30 minutes late so I’m not sure what happened at the beginning. It was a relatively brief meeting compared to the other budget sessions.
During the time I was there the discussion was about the $30 million CEDIT bond and the capital projects slated to be done.
Changing the two blocks of Calhoun back to two way at a cost of $1.3 million was discussed with Goldner & Shoaff essentially saying it was a waste of money when there are miles and miles of concrete streets in far worst condition and wouldn’t cost as much to repair.
Bender also thought it was a waste of money but felt like it did need to be two-way and asked if there was a more cost-effective solution. Liz Brown and Tom Didier seemed to be the only councilmembers fully behind the project (Pape and Hines were absent).
The discussion then went to a philosophical discussion on whether or not the city should bond for these projects at all or simply start a pay as you go process. This was suggested by John Shoaff because he said the city is paying an additional 40% in interest and bonding fees.
Mitch Harper pointed out that the projects could be done on a paygo basis but that we would have to forgo a full construction cycle in order to build up a working balance that we could use to pay for the first project.
JQ,
I think there are some members that wouldn’t mind taking a sledgehammer to the budget while starting at the 9th floor. In fact one councilmember specifically brought up your suggestion although I think they were only half-serious. However, I don’t think anyone wants to inject the appearance of partisanship into the process at this critical juncture.
I think in the end it will come down to this. The council will kick the budget back to the mayor with a specified percentage of cuts - probably somewhere between 2-3%. The cuts the councilmembers are submitting today will be given as recommendations.
If the mayor then fails to carryout his duties then the council will certainly take a sledgehammer to the budget. And my guess is at that point even more than 3% could be cut - like I said the mayor had better be careful.
Even Marty Bender is submitting $3 million in proposed cuts…
Jeff,
It would be really interesting if someone pulled out the data that showed how much has been spent on the “downtown” area under the guise of making downtown this hub of excitement (again).
I think it started in the late 70’s - so perhaps a 30 year collection of data….(specifically city/taxpayer funded)
* Show how many times streets were altered (and re-altered back)
* How many buildings, including those which should have been protected for historical purposes, were wiped out in the name of bringing people back downtown.
* How much in tax incentives - given to non-Fort Wayne and non-Indiana businesses so that they would do something downtown - and then - how long did they really “do something downtown”.
And then maybe Mike can do a little ROI for us :).
My point is that it seems that money is thrown at this vision of a downtown utopia (which seems to get altered every few years when that BIG IDEA doesn’t seem to pan out) and that utopia never seems to get realized.
When is enough, enough?
The S. Calhoun Street project is a double edged blade. It does need to be two way for traffic flow for police cars to move both directions. If the Harrison Project was done correctly this should have been part of the project as part of the overall traffic changes. I asked this very question when we where kicking the project around on the local blogs.
Bonding is little more then a form of deficient spending. What bonding started out as was a wise tool but has gotten away from the real core use. Much like the some jerks on Wall Street, government has abused the intent of concept.
Bonds where once used to finance single purpose projects that a normal annual budget could not cover. Now they are often made up of a bunch of little “feel good” projects that could have been contained in a single annual budget. But since we live in “we want it all” life style we end up doing this crap.
Kill the bond… We will live two years without it. It may not be nice but the world is not nice right now!!!!
Think of it this way… If Mayor Henry was the CEO of a company called Fort Wayne and submitted his annual budget to the board of directors, the City Council, and said you guys cut it. He would be fired on the spot! Pure and simple.
Kristina,
It’s interesting you bring that up because councilman Harper (and Bender) talked about the changes to Calhoun over the years and how it hasn’t made a difference.
He actually called it a “sinkhole” for public funds.
Kristina,
Calhoun Street is a true sinkhole of city dollars. But look at the millions of property tax dollars we have taken off the books. The Court House Park, Public Library, Grand Wayne Center, Harrison Square, and the soon to be Dimension Ford property. Even the south end Headwaters Park can be added to this list.
People poke fun at Wayne Township for having a hard time making it but don’t remember we have taken more and more of their property tax base that they depended on for tax dollars. Plus all of us pay higher city wide and county wide taxes because of the removal of parts of our tax base. On top of that we get to pay for the buildings we build on them.
We have not only shot ourselves once in the foot but then we turn around and shoot ourselves in the other foot! We follow that up by shooting ourselves in the hand by handing out tax abatements.
So check your billfolds and pocketbooks becuase if you still have any money left the government has a project that you just have to have!
I watched the debate last night about Calhoun St. It seemed that the main complaint from Brown and Didier stemmed from their own personal problems with navigating downtown streets.
Councilman Smith suggested that it was made one-way because of a deal with Wells-Fargo. I wonder what the businesses on that street feel about the disruption of their business again. This would be an extensive remake.
Councilman Brown seemed to feel that because it had already been approved it couldn’t be undone. How in the world can she be complaining about budget shortfalls and not consider the pros and cons of this project given our current fiscal situation.
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