Let’s first link you to Mac’s excellent analysis of the report from financial consultants Executive Partners, Inc. (EPI) that came out this week. You will remember that the city has paid them $60,000 for their expertise and the article answers the question of whether we’ve gotten our money’s worth. Go for the context; stay to give your two cents.

I’m going to talk about Monday. Here’s something that doesn’t make sense. The Committee of the Whole meeting agenda contains items concerning the FY2010 budget and even the new police station, but not the EPI report or even how EPI recommendations relate to these other items.

For example, here are the options presented in the CoW agenda regarding police station options: Read the rest of this entry

[Update: I ended up reworking this a little, since the MFT-electricity thing is moot.]

The proposed FY2010 city budget includes not only the FY2009 budgeted amounts but also the final revenue and spending projections for the current budget year. One of the projected General Fund revenue numbers (p. 29) is truly shocking: sales tax revenues are now projected to come in at $375,700 less than the original budgeted amount. Licenses & permits look to be down $89,000 and property taxes come in at $78,000 under the original estimate.

The city is still claiming an $800,000 “surplus” for FY2009. Whatever you want to call it, some red ink was avoided mostly through hiring freeze and attrition, which cut wage estimates by $536,400 and reduced projected personnel expenditures overall by $694,010. Other major reductions occurred in contractual services, including deep cuts to training budgets.

It will be interesting to see how Council will respond to continuing financial challenges in FY2010. The financial consultant’s (Executive Partners) report is now available and contains both short- and long-term remedies for our chronic budget problems. A list called “Where to Begin” suggests the following priorities: Read the rest of this entry