According to the Daily Chronicle, last night the DeKalb County’s Finance Committee voted to send an FY2011 budget proposal to the full county board that contains cuts to the health department and sheriff’s office — as well as a property tax hike of about 2.4% for the average homeowner.

What’s the deal?

[Deputy County Administrator Gary] Hanson said the 2011 budget will be larger because of the courthouse expansion and installation of a county-wide, fiber-optic network.

“Overall the county budget will be up and it’s those two projects that will drive it,” Hanson said.

Beyond the bass-ackwardness of the budget priorities, what happened to the promises that the courthouse project would not raise our taxes?

This is a follow up to previous posts about DeKalb Public Library (DKPL), here and here, in which I posed questions about audits of DKPL and whether the failure to estimate six types of revenues in its budget for several years ever sent up red flags for the auditor of the City of DeKalb’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR).

Here are the facts: Read the rest of this entry

The DeKalb Public Library’s annual budget is part of the City of DeKalb’s budget and has to be approved by City Council.

In Fiscal Year 2008, which began July 1, 2007, a significant change was made in DPL’s budget that went unremarked. That year and each year since, the Library has not been projecting/budgeting all of its revenues. Here is what the change looks like:

First, I want to give a shout-out to Misty Haji-Sheikh, who presented the findings of apparently self-initiated research into the likelihood and implications of a rail transfer station on the south side if the landfill expansion is approved. She recommends council anticipate these developments and put ordinances in place to protect us pronto. Thank you!

I strongly encourage listening to the public comments section of last night’s council meeting for her presentation, if you haven’t already. Read the rest of this entry

In a previous post, I listed perks that theoretically could be cut from the FY2011 budget. Car allowances, magazine subscriptions, dues to professional organizations, lunch reimbursements, and clothing allowances run into hundreds of thousands each year. (Sure, some of them are contractual — but did they even try to talk to the unions about them?)

At any rate, Third Ward Alderman Pam Verbic is against cuts to perks. Verbic says the city “can’t run a professional organization” without them.

That’s nonsense. Read the rest of this entry

This is primarily a “No, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth” message. Anyway, feel free to use this space for commenting on the cat story, the TIF articles from the Daily Chronicle, city budget, etc.

I love being called “lunatic fringe” by a City Council member. I really do. Let them show the world how far this body has fallen in matters of decorum and discipline. Let them demonstrate how much they despise the people they are supposed to be representing. Folks ought to know exactly who’s responsible for running this city into the ground through ignorance, arrogance and denial.

My lunacy at last night’s Council meeting comes after the jump. Read the rest of this entry

In 2008, in the midst of a self-proclaimed fiscal crisis, City Council voted to allow the (former) Community Development Department to obtain a new SUV.

This is symbolic, see? The Police and Fire departments have had to put off replacing vehicles and some equipment since then. The Police Department, in particular, is getting nickel-and-dimed on old patrol cars that should have been retired last year, and the year before, and the year before that. But Community Development got exactly what it wanted.

And, as each new downtown brick paver is tamped into place, it must seem like a slap in the face. Read the rest of this entry

Use this space as a catch-all for commenting on the city budget hearings, to give good link for the new Open Books page (I am particularly interested in a few good databases), or whatever else is on your mind.

Forgot to tell you that Norway Farms is parking at G&L’s Auto Repair on Thursdays from 11-1:30. Milt does this every year because the asparagus always needs pickin’ from about a month before the DeKalb Farmers’ Market begins. G&L is on South Fourth across from the Lehan’s-Dollar General building.

Last Thursday I bought two 1-lb bunches for five bucks and sauteed about 3/4 lb of the slenderest tenderest with green peas and thyme. Today the rest goes into soup.

The Farmers’ Market starts June 3.

The proposed City of DeKalb FY 2011 budget has total expenditures going up by about $5 million over last year, mostly due to increased spending on the downtown TIF, health insurance and the airport.

The budget as drafted will be balanced IF:

Read the rest of this entry