City Budget Passes With $2.5 Million in Cuts
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 11/18/08 @ 8:52 pm - Filed Under City Council, Featured
Councilwoman Liz Brown’s cuts were grouped and voted on by department. Community Development was the only department to receive any cuts and those cuts totaled $115k. Interestingly enough one of the items cut was the mileage reimbursement for employees that have to drive out into the community as part of their daily work. I guess they won’t be getting reimbursed next year.
Also of note the previously cut Public Information Officer position was reinstated by a 6-3 vote with councilmembers Harper, Smith and Didier Brown voting against it.
Taking the previous $2.43 million in cuts, adding the $115k from community development and subtracting $54k for the PIO position brought the total budget cuts to $2.5 million. Overall the budget passed by a 7-2 vote with councilmembers Brown and Harper voting against it.
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13 Responses to “City Budget Passes With $2.5 Million in Cuts”
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This should have been over with weeks ago for all the good tonight’s meeting did. I missed the start of the meeting. I tuned in just as Councilwoman Brown started her cascade of motions to present her cuts. I liked the idea of a roll call vote on each section. It would have been a little more professional, or maybe polite is the word, if she would have let the Clerk announce the result of each vote before she hurtled on to the next one.
This is the problem with at-large council members. Since they don’t really have a specific district to hold them accountable at election time, they can hijack the agenda on a whim.
The looks on the faces of the other council members spoke volumes.
Councilwoman Brown should get credit for bringing bi-partisanship to the council. I don’t think any of the votes that defeated her motions, except maybe one, followed party lines.
John,
No Democrat voted for any of her cuts. On several motions Republican councilman Marty Bender broke with the Democrats to become the deciding vote against the cut.
Jeff,
I know a couple of the votes were 8-1 and 7-2, even 6-3. I am sure you have a more accurate accounting of the margins than I do.
It just seemed to me that all of them looked like they would have rather been almost anywhere else during the meeting.
Maybe, now that they have been through this experience, next year will be an easier process.
I didn’t keep count, but it appeared that Bender only voted with Brown once or twice. It looked like Didier was the nexrt strongest supporter of her cuts, followed by Harper then Smith.
It was really funny seeing the first time that Bender voted yes and how startled Brown was by it.
He’s become the mayor’s representative on the council. Oh and he only voted with brown once.
I think the larger isssue here is what happens next year.
First, there is a PROJECTED shortfall of $9 million- which may, or may not, be accurate.
Second, as Liz Brown found out last night, there is simply not that much fat in the budget. A lot of the things she thought she could cut, she could not either due to how they are funded or existing contracts.
Thoughts??
I thought that one of the most interesting points of the night was after they voted to allow discussion for reinstating the PIO position. At that point, it was clear that Roller probably intended to revisit all of the cuts that had previously been agreed to. I was impressed with the way Smith shut her down by saying “This has to come from someone on the Council.”
What was even more impressive (in a negative sense) was that no one from the Mayor’s office had bothered to discuss these ideas with any of their four Democratic Council persons. I think this relates back to that night when Hines blasted Mayor Henry for his lack of ethnic diversity in his administration. I still do not think that someone of Hines caliber would have publicly made such a harsh statement against his own party’s mayor unless he felt there was no other channel of communication open to him.
It is beginning to appear that lack of communication is going to be a hallmark of the Henry administration.
But you miss the point of doing a budget. The CDC budget is a perfect example. Liz spent a great deal of time cutting line items but there was no thought put into what the impact of that cut was. So for the CDC, they’ve cut reimbursements out. Does that mean a) the people will be expected to take those deductions on their personal taxes (which they can), or b) that they expect people not to travel to those locations.
If its a, that needs to be communicated to the staff and we need to expect that some of that staff may not be willing to “foot the bill” and will stop traveling as a part of doing their jobs.
If its b, then what is the negative impact to the community for economic development? And if we aren’t focused on economic development, what the heck are we doing with this group??
Budgets aren’t just line items and a red pen only works if after you’ve cut the item, you’ve determined how to do as much (if not more) work with less resources. I didn’t see anyone considering what needed to happen with the cuts the Liz Brown was attempting to barrelled through…….
Not the kind of leadership I think this progressive community is looking for!
What’s wrong with this picture? For the last two days in Washington DC the heads of the big three auto makers are begging for a handout so they don’t run out of cash for a few more months. Whatever happens, a million or more jobs will eventually disappear, including many in this area.
Meanwhile in Fort Wayne, our mayor and city council can’t find in it in themselves to cut a single job from city goverment. The one they cut and then put back doesn’t count. Ms. Goldner says let’s wait ’till next year.
Ms Goldner, her fellow Democrats, and on the city police payroll council member Marty Bender all see it as simple as increasing taxes next year. Hell, there is no problem….. The taxpayers still have some loose change in their pockets. Let us get it….
The North annexation needs to go forward.No excuses.
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[...] weeks of discussion the city council was able cut $2.5 million from the city budget without cutting a single job. Getting any level of government to cut their expenditures is quite a [...]