The following is an exerpt from the Sidney Citizen's 4/15/10 letter in response to how "they" would handle our $650,000.00 shortfall in the city budget.
I would love to hear from my readers what they think.
1. Stop the bleeding NOW!
a. Limit economic developement (e.d.)dollars spent to e.d. dollars collected and rec'vd. The state is keeping this money, so until we get it, don't spend it from the general fund. TRANSPARENCY! Stop hiding the actual costs of our local e.d. efforts.
b. Stop all new projects & capital expenditures without the express vote of
approval from the council.
c. Lower spending authority from $20,000 to $5,000
d. Rescind the current budget and hold and emergency budget session to
address the budget shortfall in the current budget.
e. Stop all budget expenditures for Boot Hill, Camp Outlook, Recreation
management fees, etc. These types of expenditures are not necessary for the
operation of the city and can be accomplished by volunteer labor and private
donations.
2. Identify and eliminate the inefficient organization of our city government.
a. Eliminate duplication of management levels and effort
I Eliminate Public Service Director position.
II Eliminate GIS position.
III Eliminate the tech shop
IV Eliminate electric dept's crew chief position.
V Separate the City Mgr & E.D. jobs.
VI Move E.D. & associated funding out of the city's general fund to the
chamber of commerce office (owned by the City)
VII Reduce city managers salary & benefits to an ammount commensurate with
those of other communities this size with a $100,000.00 total comp pkg
cap. (current city manager has priced himself out of a job at over
$125,000.00.
VIII Consider early retirement pkg for long term, highly comp employees.
3. Look at employee cost:
a. Permanently eliminate longevity pay - this is merely a hidden pay raise
benefitting long term employees.
b. Freeze all new hires.
c. Eliminate annual bonuses.
d. Freeze and eliminate all automatic wage increases. Instead, institute
a systematic employee evaluation system with an annual cost of living
adjustment when the economy and budgets support wage increases.
e. Temporarily reduce the 401k pension match
f. Freeze all non required travel and training.
g. Consider a 2 day furlough each month for every employee, 1 day per pay period
without pay, no vacation or sick leave used for those days.
h. Change non-safety related work hours to 4 10-hour days per week to save on
operating costs in every non safety dept.
i. Require dept heads to leave city vehicles at work and commute to & from work
with personal vehicles.
4. Identify and dispose of assets, equipment, and tools that are no longer used.
5. Purchase our own street crack sealing maching and have it operated by employees
of all depts when they have idle time - this needs to be an ongoing process.
6. Evaluate the potential cost savings of having a city construction crew in lieu of
hiring out the smaller projects - they could run the street sealing process when
not working on city jobs.
Note from Kelroy:
Well, there ya go. They are all legitimate ways of cutting the budget, your thoughts.....
Friday, April 16, 2010
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Here is some information that your readers might find helpful in regards to the question about the economic development money.
ReplyDeleteSidney’s total sales tax burden is 1.5 cents.
In 1980, the voters passed a one-cent sales tax with the intention of providing property tax relief.
In 1988, the voters approved an additional half-cent sales tax for the Community & Economic Development Plan. To more clearly define the use of the funds, the voters - in 1997 and then again in 2007 - approved setting aside half of this half cents to the Job Creation Plan. (These votes approved a 10-year plan each time, so the current plan is through 2017.)
While these funds were created using a half cent and quarter cent as a base, the funds must be clearly defined by the city using a dollar amount. The Job Creation fund totals $300,000 a year and the Community & Economic Development Fund is set at $350,000.
For the Job Creation fund, $50,000 per year is allocated for improvements to the north side by the Northside Neighborhood Development Association and city council. The residents of that area are surveyed and asked to participate in town hall meetings to decide how the funds will be spent. Another $50,000 of this fund is allocated per year for downtown revitalization projects and is managed by the Sidney Historic Preservation Board. This board is a certified local government and is regulated by state law.
These processes have always been held in a public forum, and the public is encouraged to attend any and all meetings.
The remainder ($200,000) is allowed for providing financial assistance to qualifying businesses or to fund tourism-related activities.
There is a 14-page document available from the economic development office that clearly explains what type of program or project qualifies, what type of financial assistance is available, how applications are processed, and how the administrators of the plan are required to update city council on the status of ongoing projects.
It also outlines how funds can be invested when there aren’t any qualified applicants, and clearly states that after any continuous five full-budget years it is shown that less than 50 percent of the funds are spent or committed to programs or projects, the measure will be placed on the next regular election ballot to see if the voters continue to support the plan.
Of the $350,00 in the Community & Economic Development Fund, the following allocations are given:
$120,000 to the Community Center/Recreational Services
$55,000 to Economic Development
$66,576 for ambulance services
$15,000 to the Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce
$10,000 for the fireworks display
$4,000 to Memorial Gardens
$79,424 to subsidize the swimming pool operation.
If you have any questions, I'll be happy to do more research. Drop me an e-mail at tamaranelsen@gmail.com
Thats cool and all but is there really a budget deficit and if so how should we deal with it?
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you put that in the form of a question, because it seems lots of folks don’t understand (including the person or people that write the Sidney Citizen) that we are not in a revenue crisis at this moment.
ReplyDeleteThe $650,000 revenue shortfall was anticipated by city management when the budgets were proposed so the department heads were given strict instructions to trim everything possible.
We knew we weren’t going to get the money, so it had to be cut from the budget.
It was hoped that the legislation proposed by Sen. Ken Schilz would pass and the city would be given about $350,000 back. As we now know, that did not happen, but more cities on the eastern half of the state are starting to see shortfalls they did not anticipate and so this is likely to be addressed next session.
Remember when the radio and newspaper said that city council would need to raise our property taxes by something like 25 percent to cover the budgets? That was if the budget was passed as originally proposed without the cuts. That’s how the budget process works. Each department puts together a proposal of what they would really like to have, and then usually settles for what they need to have, or at least what they need to have the most.
The thing to remember if that we shouldn’t have to make these cuts year after year when the taxes we pay are as high as they are.
(And if the rules aren’t changed, we will have the same situation next year.)
Just think, if the state program is changed, we could see a reduction in our taxes without any reduction in services.
That would be nice, wouldn’t it?
Thank you Tamara!! I am glad to see someone set the record straight. I agree with anon who called the Sidney citizen a piece of used toilet paper!! It doesn't contain the whole truth. Just half baked ideas. It seems to me that the extremist attitude that is shown in that paper is extremely harmful. It just stirs people up with half-truths. People need to ask questions and get answers. The WHOLE answer!!
ReplyDeleteGreat post every body!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you all on the annon part, hence the reason I only posted their ideas on how to handle a budget shortfall. I don't know where the idea that we would be short $650,000.00 came from. I have complained of it myself and yet I know not where I got my info from. Good point. I don't think they are "extremist" I think they are just upset with they way things are being handled and they want to see some changes. Changes that "some" would find extreme. One thing I know for sure, change will bring out the worst or best in someone. I personally don't really care if they are anon, they get people fired up and talking about an issue which normally we citizens would have no knowledge of. Then it can be transformed into "movement". ba dum dump.
So there is no budget crisis? Good. How does one get a copy of the Sidney Citizen, we had to steal one out of the trash.
ReplyDeleteAnd also,are we really that reliant on State funds and if so do you see any danger on relying on state funding so much, If you do see a danger how should we handle that situation? And I'll thank you ahead of time for your answers.
And remember a pot that doesn't get stirred now and then usually ends up with something sticking to the bottom of it. But I do take issue with the anonymous aspect of the Citizen letters, It brings about too much supposition.
ReplyDeleteI guess I don't see state funds as a mine-or-theirs, but as ours. The state would have no funds if we didn't pay our taxes and fees, and those taxes and fees should in turn pay for services.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I wouldn't say that the budget situation isn't serious, I think it is, and it needs addressed.
Remember, the funds we are losing are coming back to companies in Sidney, not leaving our community. Those companies qualify for the tax returns by proving they have followed the state's rules to create jobs. The issue we have with that is the sale tax dollars were intended to pay for local programs, not state programs.
The other chunk of the problem is the state aid formula. Sidney does not qualify for state aid because our tax levy isn't at the maximum. Our taxes are high because our property valuations are high, but the state formula assumes that if we really needed additional funding for city projects, we could raise our levy. (That is opposed to a city that has low valuations and has the levy maxed out.)
I think a more prudent form of determining what cities receive in state aid should be based on the dollar amount the average taxpayer is paying, not the levy.
For example, a person who owns a home valued at $30,000 at the 50 cent max levy pays ($3,000 X .50) or $1,500 in taxes, while the tax on a $75,000 house at 42 cent levy (8,500 X .42) is $3,150. That's more than double, and the reality is that a home in Sidney that sells for $75K would only be worth $30K in a lot of other first class cities around the state. So, the levy isn't the problem and the valuations may be too high but no one wants their property devalued either.
We simply need the state to fund its own programs, and allow Sidney to determine how we use our local tax dollars. Once we get that fixed, maybe we can tackle the state aid formula.
Opps, boy, did I mess up my math!
ReplyDeleteThe tax figures should say a person who owns a home valued at $30,000 at the 50 cent max levy pays ($300 X .50) or $150 in taxes, while the tax on a $75,000 house at 42 cent levy ($750 X .42) is $315.
I guess the reason I didn't catch my mistake is that it seems too low, but in reality, we are only talking about the cities portion of the tax levy. The majority of our property taxes are paid to the county (49 cents) and to the school district ($1.19 with the bond)
But, I guess it goes towards proving my point that the city heavily depends upon the sales tax dollars (which are about double those of the property tax dollars collected) to keep our city moving and the state thinks its economic development program trumps that.
Thank you for the information Miss Tammy!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I want to be mad at someone about this, who can I throw tomatoes at? Was this not forseen? Can it be reversed? What is your
fix?
Spaceroy,
ReplyDeleteBudget crisis? Who said that? Is there a shortfall in the budget this year? There has to be, we just need to fine tune the amount.
We need Lois Lane to fact find for us. She is good at fact finding.
My goodness its all so sorted isn't it.
ReplyDeleteWe need to redirect misdirectd funds to directly address the direct problem of going in the wrong direction.
Spaceroy,
ReplyDeleteLook at the monkey.......
If you want to throw rotten food at someone, you can blame the drug dealers who use Interstate 80 and the local meth cookers who create demand for their drugs.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not off topic. If you check with the county, you'll see the county has to budget about $350,000 for court appointed attorneys. They also budget about $200,000 for the jail and care of prisoners, jury fees and other court costs.
(And while many are local, if the State Patrol makes an arrest in Cheyenne County, the suspect is booked into our local jail and the residents of Cheyenne County pay for that suspect's attorney and care.)
All of this comes from the county general fund, and our tax levy to the county is much higher than the city's because of it.
Crime doesn't pay, the taxpayers do.
As for the econ development issue, I have more posted on my blog and will be continuing to write more.
(Blog site address available if you click on my picture, for those that don't know.))
And here I thought drug use led to jazz music.
ReplyDeleteImplementation of harm reduction strategies would fix all of that, remember, when pencils are deemed illegal only criminals will have pencils.And crime always pays, for the state.
Tamara thank you for all of the information, I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteGood jazz comes from good pot....the rest of the drugs just cost us money.
ReplyDeleteI think Spaceroy and Kelroy have been to too many jazz festivals!! Wow are you guys out there!!
ReplyDeleteI happen to hold season tickets to all Jazz festivals nation wide and a few international venues.
ReplyDeleteBesides we don't really want to get into the Military industrial complex and its implications in the now 45 year old drug war..do we...Kelroy would have to start a new thread and quite frankly I, Like the honorable William Buckley before me, am incredibly tired of arguing my stance on the subject. But I will and I am very well armed and ready for it.
ReplyDeleteTamara Nelsen has been very helpful. She seems like one of the sharper tacs in the pack.
ReplyDeleteShe's very factual. I would like to get a better insight into her common sensibilities.
Our town is a living, breathing, everchanging lifeforce. You must be able to bend like a tree, and know when to stop beating a dead horse and all the little goodies in between. My questions to all candidates will be:
What is Sidney's best feature?
What is Sidney's worst feature?
During tough financial times are you willing to make hard choices? What would be your number one budget cutting choice?
What is your number 1 priority if you should win the council seat?
And for my own personal reasons a bonus question:
What do you think about the new bulb-outs at the post office?
To my Anon friend,
ReplyDeleteI wish! We don't get time off or vacations.
My last vacation was when I had Kate 19 years ago! We did get to go to Scottsbluff for Christmas shopping one weekend last year.
Spaceroy LOVES Billy Holliday. Nope, the only festivals for me & Spaceroy are the food festivals at mom's house. Oh yea, and the Orions belt festival on the hill the first weekend in July. I might host a garden cleanup festival this weekend. It should be festive. I had a mowing festival last night but nobody showed up.
What exactly is a bulb out? I'm having a hard time envisioning it.
ReplyDeleteI had a vacation back in 1994 , We went to Rapid City for the weekend after visiting the family farm, every time we opened the door somebody said "that will be 40 bucks please"
ReplyDeleteBut we had a lot of fun and I can see where taking these "vacations" would be good for a family.
Tamara, do you think that some bad federal policies (like ,I feel,Free Trade, unfunded mandates etc.) Are affecting our small town budgets more than small town managers can deal with them? And will local politicians pay the price? And thank you for answering our questions without judging us or calling us names.
ReplyDeleteI do not support the drug war. Bring our soldiers HOME! It's beating a dead horse.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see them put their resources into nabbing the pedophiles and child porn sicko's who are EVERYWHERE! They have the knowhow to track them all but no money to do it. Putting all that money into finding Waldo in the basement with a joint compared to what is happening in Waldo's secret hidden WI FI dungeon! As a society, we should be ashamed.
Well you know I agree, Don't let Johnny get B#$Fu@#ed and maybe he won't need so much Oxy right! But you will never, never convince the other side. But I take solice in the fact that 99% of the population once believed the earth was flat, so in time when the damage from this never ending war on our own families and neighbors is even more visible than it is now they will come around. Damn girl don't get me started on this.
ReplyDeleteLets do lunch!!! I'm so hungry !! I have already lifted over 30000 lbs today!! Thats 15 tons, I'm tired!
ReplyDeletedont confuse facts with intentions. The fact that someone knows details gives no reference to how they would vote. From what I saw on TV, all of the candidates with ties to Cabela's are strongly in favor of Gary Person's brand of economic development. remember Gary's form of economic development brings jobs to the county, not the city. The city keeps on paying the bill for all the serivces to support the county jobs. Interesting, aint it?
ReplyDeleteWow..it isn't called "The Sidney Chamber" or The Sidney Economic Development" it is the "Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce" and the "Cheyenne County Economic Development".
ReplyDeleteThe people who want the economic development and city manager position separated want the economic development moved into the CHEYENNE COUNTY CHAMBER...
INTERESTING in that the city pays for bills for the services to support the county because SIDNEY IS IN CHEYENNE COUNTY..
You couldn't have seen it on TV genius..it ain't been on TV yet..
Harpies always start with WOW, its not neccessarily a word when used in reference to a Harpie, its the sound their wings make whilst swooping for unmerited grapes.
ReplyDeleteSome politicians can talk for years and never can answer a yes or no question. They are afraid of the fallout that comes from an honest answer. They are simply puny Homers that want some kind of power or prestige, they really don't want to make a difference, or else they would answer a yes or no question with yes or no.
ReplyDeleteYou see Anon #2, you catch more flies with honey, not vinegar, perhaps your inner anger issues cloud your thinking. Ben Franklin had a similar problem once, he would invite a group of thinking men over for conversation, but they always left frustrated and angry and would not return. Ben wondered why? His quaker friend had to explain to Ben, gingerly of course, that perhaps he should stop telling people they are stupid for thinking the way they do, and instead say something like "well thats a very interesting idea but what about this take on it?" Ben thought real hard on this, because it went against his natural reactions, he had very little sympathy or patience with any one who could not see things the way he did. But he tried it, and what do you know it worked! I understand your misdirected anger I wallow from time to time myself, but one must reach out to bridge the divide. Not be so vicious and angry ALL the time.
ReplyDelete