Paying for the cost overruns

July 22, 2017

The agenda and backup material for the Tuesday, July 21, 2017 city council meeting were not posted until sometime after 4 PM last Thursday.

The city is closed on Fridays and the city representatives are tied up with legislative review (pre-council) meetings on Mondays.

We have written before about how difficult this makes it for citizens to register their views with their city representatives before council takes action.

Normally the agendas and backup materials are posted at about Noon on the Thursday before a meeting.

Not posting this week’s materials until the end of the day effectively will keep the public from calling to express their views on a major issue.  Whether this happened accidentally or was done on purpose the effect is the same–the public was denied it’s right to express their views.

We do know that there is an item on Tuesday’s agenda that many of us have strong feelings about.

As it currently stands, the city’s debt management policy does not allow council to issue certificates of obligation to pay for quality of life projects.

Item 26.1 on Tuesday’s agenda gives council an opportunity to add quality of life projects to the list of things that certificates of obligation can be used for.

We plan to publish another post about this next Monday to remind the readers of what they are trying to do.

Call your city representative.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

City debt payments

July 20, 2017

The proposed 2017-2018 city budget includes an item for $59,808,247 for principal payments on debt.

That amount combined with the $60,986,279 the city is budgeting for interest expense brings this year’s cost of debt to $120,794,526.

They are budgeting $272,808,158 in revenue from property taxes.

That means that 44% of our property tax money is not going to be used to finance current operations, but instead will be used to pay for past spending.

We deserve better

Brutus

14 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Our interest expense

July 19, 2017

The proposed 2017-2018 city budget includes $60,986,279 for interest expense.

Remember that the majority of the quality of life bonds have yet to be sold.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Streets are 3rd priority

July 18, 2017

This slide from a Monday, May 15, 2017 presentation to city council tells us a lot about what some in the city think is important:

Note that street resurfacing is considered “critical”, right after new vehicles and equipment and repairs to city buildings.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

8 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

What emergency?

July 17, 2017

The Times has told us that our new mayor believes that certificates of obligation should only be issued to handle emergencies.

What part of the spending from the proposed $62 million in certificates of obligation would be used for an emergency item?

Would it be:

$16.8 million to increase funding for quality of life projects

$24.8 million to buy police cars, fire engines, repair a parking garage, and remodel some restrooms

$2.6 million to improve and repair facilities (including $700,000 for bathrooms at San Jacinto)

$18.1 million to have someone assess our streets, put traffic signals at new intersections, and add lights to our “entryways”

Has the mayor changed his mind?  We will soon see how he handles the situation.

Stay tuned

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

 

6 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »