The vote came in the nick of time. By law, Council had until March 31st to approve the budget. The lone "no" vote was Council President Scott Mills. He objected because, in his view, the budget short-changed the city's infrastructure and ignored more pressing safety needs.
Frankly, I was quite pleased to hear the debate. It showed that Council was giving the budget the kind of thoughtful consideration that it deserves.
Although at least one member of Council’s Legislative & Finance Committee(L&F) was privately upset that questions were raised about the budget right before the vote---after all, L&F had been diligent in its review process--- the reality is that Finance Director Tony Ianiro didn't give a draft budget to L&F until late February, and the rest of Council didn’t get a good look at it until Ianiro formally presented the budget to Council at the March 15th Committee of the Whole meeting.
Bottom line, the administration made sure that Council had little time to discuss ---and possibly challenge---the mayor’s budget decisions.
Keeping in mind that budget discussions can get pretty dull, I put together some
2011 Budget Math
for your viewing pleasure. Ready? Here goes....
- $5,670,447 2006 income tax revenue before Mayor Coleman’s income tax increase
- $8,435,482 2007 city income tax revenue after Mayor Coleman’s tax increase
- $8,925,000 2011 projected city income tax revenue
- $718,266 2006 property tax revenue put into general fund (101 fund)
- $769,760 2007 property tax revenue put into general fund
- $723,792 2011 projected property tax revenue for general fund
- $326,485 2006 property tax revenue put into Park & Recreation fund (202 fund)
- $349,891 2007 property tax revenue put into P&R fund
- $332,500 2011 projected P&R fund property tax revenue
--------------------------- - $15, 855,272.88 (2011 total projected city revenue) vs. $16,577,555.70 (2011 total projected city expenses)
= $ -72,2282.82 (2011 projected overall city deficit spending) - $629,850 (2011 Park & Recreation projected revenue) vs. $ 651,689 (2011 P & R projected expenses)
= $-21,839 (2011 P&R projected deficit spending )
------------------------------- - 5.8% —increase in projected 2011 general fund spending over 2010 actual general fund spending
- 2.1% ---projected inflation rate for 2011 http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
--------------------------------
- $252,000—amount budgeted for 2011 street crack sealing and concrete repairs
- $0—amount budgeted for 2011 resurfacing of city streets
---------------------------------- - $25,000—amount budgeted to address city drainage issues
- $50,000--amount budgeted to do flood plain study
- $0—amount budgeted for needed replacement of Highland Road water main
----------------------------------- - $220,000—total amount budgeted to renovate/replace Old Pool House in park for 8 week summer day camp program (including electrical and workshop relocations)
- $0---amount budgeted to address primary safety issue in park (park entrance) and park roads
