Finance Sub Committee boosts school budget.
The lame duck Finance Committee will recommend to the full council, increasing the school budget by adding 611K, an increase of 4.11%, which is contingent on the increase of Chapter 70 money from the State. FinCom also will recommend not hiring a diversity chief and 4 other staffers for at least 3 months.
In this past meeting, they approve all capitail and operating expenses. None of the committee even bothered to ask for more details about spending. So much for the promise of more scrutiny in approving budgets by the Charter supporters. While the Mayor seems to have no problem with building an empire with little regard to those on fixed income who require less from the City. Expect to see over 300.00 dollar tax increase, plus an increase in water and sewer rates. And by next year, it's my guess, we will all be paying a waste water fee to the City.
http://207.172.210.8:5002/CablecastPublicSite/show/1738?channel=1
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 9:57 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
What can we do about this JIm? Seems like there should have been a lot more questions asked about this budget. I sure miss TM where I could watch on tv and see who was paying attention, who raised questions, and who just approved everything put in front of them without really investigating, like all the DCs did for this budget
So the finance committee and district councilors can just up the budget without having to go through the mayor or the CFO? Whats that about?
The Council is the Legislative body under the Charter and can move or deny funds without the Mayor's consent.
It would take a mass response from senior taxpayers (like what happened at Senior Center a few weeks ago) to make an impression on the council. Very few of our neighbors even know what is going on and perhaps they don't care.. until they see the increases.
I agree on the TM statement. We could at least ask questions in committee. Now it seems, the FinCom just takes everyone's word for it. And if you think it's out of control now, just wait for the new batch of council-people who will be elected. All but one has ever seen a city budget. I'm afraid the taxpayers have lost any input into reducing the spending. Perhaps spending questions will arise at the debates later this summer.
Interesting about the council over ruling the mayor. Will be interesting to see how this plays out. Disappointed in the Finance Subcommittee. I would have like to see them dive deeper into this budget and find the places where we need to tighten our belts, like the police and fire overtime. Maybe I missed it but I did not see anyone even question those amounts. Miss TM myself.
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