Aug 14
While the City of DeKalb touts balanced General Fund budgets, deficits in other funds are growing.
| FY | Workers Comp Deficit | Prop Tax Deficit | Non-Prop Tax Deficit | Total Deficit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| '04 | 537,619 | 2,618,972 | 0 | 3,156,591 |
| '05 | 785,219 | 2,107,567 | 0 | 2,892,786 |
| '06 | 894,799 | 935,135 | 0 | 2,669,493 |
| '07 | 998,495 | 1,043,658 | 15,716 | 2,057,869 |
| '08 | 1,063,283 | 296,517 | 111,421 | 1,471,221 |
| '09 | 1,800,154 | 11,148 | 667,954 | 2,479,256 |
| '10 | 1,757,014 | 0 | 1,168,662 | 2,925,676 |
Aug 10
This is an AP story but I haven’t seen it locally.
Eight of the 17 floors at Carman Hall will be empty and kept closed because the university doesn’t need the space, The Mattoon Journal Gazette and Charleston Times-Courier reported.
[...]
No layoffs are planned but open positions on the dorm’s staff will remain unfilled for the time being.The university’s freshmen enrollment dropped by approximately 200 students in fall 2010 after declining by about 100 students the year before.
Aug 9
…and street sweeping. Rockford Register Star:
The City Council Finance and Personnel Committee and City Council approved a controversial request involving ambulance service at meetings Monday night.
The committee’s aldermen voted unanimously to let city staff develop a request for proposals from the private sector for citywide ambulance response. The Rockford Fire Department provides the service, but city leaders have been discussing the possibility of outsourcing the function for the past year.
Rockford’s consultant and its Budget & Finance Advisory Committee consider the functions “potential outsourcing recommendations” but they won’t know for sure until proposals come in.
Aug 8
A friend sent me this link to an article about Central Falls, RI, which has the motto, “A City with a Bright Future”.
CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. — The city of Central Falls, Rhode Island — one of a handful of U.S. cities and counties facing fiscal collapse in the wake of the economic recession — has filed for bankruptcy.
The Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing marks a symbolic blow as state and local governments struggle to pull themselves out of the recession.
The smallest city in the smallest U.S. state made the filing Monday as it grappled with an $80 million unfunded pension and retiree health benefit liability that is nearly quadruple its annual budget of $17 million.
My friend asked whether this was a sign of things to come for the Land of Opportunity and Innovation™.
Before I take a crack at it, let me tell you about delving into Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs). (FY2003-2010 are available online at the City of DeKalb’s Downloads page.) Right now I’m contemplating such questions as:
“Is it really a capital asset if you can’t sell it?” and
“What does it say about us that TIF property taxes are our No. 2 revenue producer?” and
“If this is audited, why am I finding mistakes?” Read the rest of this entry
Aug 7
As we saw in the previous post, DeKalb has had a difficult time coming to terms with population loss since 2007. It’s not difficult to see why: a “grow or die” mentality, a downtown beautification plan at stake, an $88.5 million high school to justify, and so forth.
But before we go any further, let’s place this story of denial into a budget context. Management put raises for themselves into the FY2012 budget, and managed to budget us a nice $1.8* million surplus as well — a surplus that will be used for additional raises that accompany new labor contracts, because pay hikes for union workers are not part of the budget until they are approved by council.
The budget surplus is roughly equal to an anticipated 11.91%* increase in sales tax revenues plus the city’s share of the first year of TIF surplus.
The trouble is, the surplus is only a guess. They’ve been wrong before — and in the past few years, often very wrong. Read the rest of this entry
Aug 5
City of DeKalb’s 2011 economic development marketing materials:
DeKalb’s proximity to major markets and the community’s cultural and educational opportunities are primary reasons why the City is steadily growing. In January 2004, and again in October 2007, the U.S Census Bureau conducted a special census. The census determined that the DeKalb had grown from 39,018 residents in 2000 to a population of 45,479 by 2007. Based on new residential developments currently planned or under construction, City staff forecasts DeKalb’s population will grow to over 50,000 as a result of the 2010 Census.
City of DeKalb’s population, 2010 U.S. Census: 43,862
City of DeKalb’s census challenge claim: 44,095
Despite the shrinkage, DeKalb is forecasting robust revenue rebounds for the current budget year. Up to now, the city has attributed all revenue losses to “the economy,” and did not admit to population decline until it had to.
This stubbornly rosy view shows up in the last few years’ revenue projections, and I will post some of them for you soon in selected year-over-year comparisons of projections to actual revenues.
Of course, the most important question is whether DeKalb is continuing to shrink, because the answer has implications for almost everything to do with the city’s financial picture.