My 10 minute talk with Mayor Tom Henry
Posted by Mike Sylvester - 10/22/08 @ 7:34 pm - Filed Under City Council, Featured, Local Politics
In my opinion the best item that Mayor Henry has implemented is “Mayor’s night in.” Basically the Mayor meets with citizens for ten minutes each and discusses their concerns and opinions.
Earlier today I met with Mayor Henry and we discussed my concerns with the Fort Wayne Budget. Here is what I took from this meeting:
1. Several enterprising readers of this blog had already sent my proposed budget to the Mayor so he had already seen it.
2. The Mayor feels that our City Council is the fiscal body of Fort Wayne and that if they want to cut the budget; they will have to cut the budget themselves.
3. The deadline for an approved budget is December 1st, so the City Council needs tomove quickly.
I enjoyed talking to the Mayor. I re-iterated to him that I would be happy to volunteer my time to helping with budget cuts.
We briefly discussed the shortfall in the fire and police pensions from the old pension plans. He stated that it was still “pay as you go” and that no provision has been made for the current liability.
We also briefly discussed the recent property tax cuts. We both agreed that all the recent property tax decrease did was shift taxes from one group of taxpayers to another group. Mayor Henry said that he thought the Indiana Legislature would address this in the next session.
I enjoyed talking to Mayor Henry
Mike Sylvester
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19 Responses to “My 10 minute talk with Mayor Tom Henry”
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That’s uncanny that you volunteered to help with the budget cuts.
I was just with the Mayor the other day (I volunteer to oversee the police department one Tuesday a month). He said, “Keith, I know I have a full paid staff of accountants and lawyers, but I wish that an ordinary citizen, preferably one belonging to another political party and who voted against me, could help me out with these darned budget cuts.”
Your timing could not have been better.
Come on Mike. Get over the celebrity of it all and tell us how you really feel. As for the fire and police pensions, the state’s picking up that tab, so it’s a non-issue.
I guess 10 minutes doesn’t leave time for substance.
Did he say anything about the what-is-coming one million dollar start up the ice rink will likely now be getting?
Send Sylvester to Washington in 2010.
Sylvester for Congress. For REAL Change!
[...] would encourage everyone to read Mike Sylvester’s post regarding his meeting with mayor Henry this evening. Mike’s report is very troubling to me - particularly this comment from the [...]
Priceless keith.
Keith Cumtwa,
Your comment is funny as well as somewhat ignorant. The Mayor needs to reach outside of his paid staff in order to find significant budget cuts.
Mike
Penny Wise,
You are wrong about the old fire and police pension plans. Entirely wrong.
The State of Indiana is NOT paying for the OLD pension plan and the City of Fort Wayne has to pay that amount themselves.
Mayor Henry specifically said that they are “pay as you go” plans.
Pat Roller has made presenations to City Council concerning this subject. On September 25th, 2007 she gave a presentation where she stated that the City had a pension liability of 226 million dollars and a health shortfall of 40 million dollars.
The City of Fort Wayne currently has a pension shortfall that is APPROXIMATELY 250 million dollars. It is NOT being paid by the State of Indiana.
You should do some research before you post comments concerning the pension liability since you CLEARLY do not understand it.
Mike
Mike,
Once you get our City Budget, National Debt and Bank Bailout situations resolved. Could you please focus your work on world hunger and getting us out of Iraq.
Thank you.
Green Jeans,
I would be interested in knowing what you do, other then complain, about various local issues!
Well the City Budget is something I can TRY to influence. I met with the Mayor and I sent my recommendations to City Council. That is all I can do.
I will continue to post about the National debt; it is extremely important to every American, especially future generations. The only thing I can do regarding that issue is to help inform people and hope they vote for fiscal conservatives for elected office.
I cannot resolve the bank bailout situation; however, I am interested in it and have spoken to the office of my Congressman and both of my Senators. I will continue to post about it here.
World hunger is not a passion of mine and I likely will not post about it.
I do think we should get out of Iraq; however, it is not one of my passions and I will likely leave it to others to post about that issue.
If more poeple would “pull their heads out of the sand” and get interested in politics America would improve.
I plan on doing what little I can to influence politics.
I imagine you will continue to “keep your head” in the sand and keep complaining.
Mike
Mike, let me get this straight. I am the complainer?
Oh, ok.
Harrison Square
City Budget
Mark Souder
The Democratic Party
The Republican Party
Tom Henry
Graham Richard
Congress
The Smoking Ordinance
Obama’s Tax Policy
McCain’s Tax Policy
The Colts Offense
The Colts Defense
Crawford, Pape, and others
Pat Roller
Greg Purcell
Hardball Capital
Greg Leatherman
Has anybody been safe from your complaining?
Hello Pot, this is Kettle.
Green Jeans,
I am critical of many things; no doubt about it. I am critical of most of the things on your list; however, you have a few that I have not been critical of.
Your original comment was sarcastic and it is what I was responding to…
I am critical of many things and I do what I can to fix them; often, there is little I can do except express frustration.
Mike
Mr. Green Jeans:
One of the few freedoms that we may sometimes enjoy is the freedom to say just about anything that is on our minds. Even your complaining evokes the though process in many of us. I mean, after all, just think of the laughs the NSA is getting reading these blogs and listening to your phone calls. I’m sorry to see you make light of someone that has the ability to compose meaningful written thoughts (whether you agree or not). At least Mr. Sylvester (and several others here)throw their good names out for all to see. As someone wiser than I once said…. “I may disagree with what you say” “But I will defend to the death your right to say it”. Lighten up a bit!
Mike,
You stated: We briefly discussed the shortfall in the fire and police pensions from the old pension plans.
I suppose I should have been more specific. There is NO shortfall of the old pension plans. Maybe YOU should do YOUR homework before sputing off.
http://www.indianacounties.org/egov/apps/document/center.egov?path=doc&id=715&id2=527
Elimination of Levies and State Assumption of Local Costs
100% of Pre-1977 Local Police and Fire Pension Payments (State currently pays at least 50%)
If you didn’t have something to complain about, you’d have nothing to say.
Mr Green Jeans,
Which do you think a bigger waste of time? Complaining to the mayor or complaining to a blogger? Mike hopes to accomplish something by talking to the mayor. Do you hope to accomplish something by posting here?
I hope to save 10 minutes of the Mayor’s time.
Penny Wise,
The State is playing a shell game. It is my understanding that the City is still on the hook for about a quarter of a billion dollars.
This is something I was to discuss with the Mayor last night; however, Pat Roller could not attend the meeting so we did not discuss it.
I sent Pat Roller an email today and have not heard back yet. When I hear back I will dedicate a post to it.
It is my understanding that the City of Fort Wayne owes about one quarter of a billion dollars for police and fire pensions and that this is being paid out on a “pay as you go” basis.
I am pretty sure you are wrong and I will dedicate a post to it.
Mike
Keith Cumtwa,
You failed to save his time…
In fact, I am likely to take up another ten minutes of his time in the near future…
Mike
Pennywise,
I still have not been able to determine the exact effects of the new legislation; however, it seems to me like you are at LEAST partially correct.
It does seem like the State is picking up more of these costs then I originally thought.
I talked to several people in the Indiana State Government today and got wildly different answers…
I plan on researching this in the near future and I will dedicate a post to it soon.
Mike Sylvester