Budget "Fence Posts"

In kicking off the 2012/13 budget season, acting City Manager Glenn Morrison presented six "fence posts", or fundamental principals around which the budget should be built.  A more common term might be "corner stones".  Four of them are too fuzzy to build on, but that's probably OK because the first two circumscribe the budget.  They are

* Maintain Fiscal Soundness
* Maintain Ad Valorem Property Tax Rate

Even these may sound fuzzy, but they are not.  "Maintain Fiscal Soundness" means keep a reserve fund balance equal to 25% of annual expenditure, which is about where they are now.  "Maintain Ad Valorem Property Tax Rate" means don't increase the property tax rate.

(OK, the second one is a little fuzzy because it doesn't say anything about changing the property evaluations on which the rate is levied.  But the city has little influence on that any more.)

What these fence posts mean for you, for city services, and probably most emphatically for city employees, is that the money available to pay for everything next year will be about the same as it was this year.  That's in spite of the almost guaranteed double-digit increase in fuel prices, health insurance, and asphalt, and an increasingly pressing need to give city workers long-delayed pay increases.

So what do you want to give up?  The Fire Department Swift Water Rescue team?  Heck, they only saved three people's lives yesterday.  Police patrols?  There's only been one murder this week. Street repair?  Drainage?  Code enforcement?  Given the "fence posts", at least some of these are probably on the table.  If you care, here are a couple of things you can do:

• Ask the 26 people who have offered to serve you in the next city government where they stand on the budget.  Don't accept vague answers.  Find where their priorities are and vote accordingly.  I will try to help with that in coming weeks.
• Make your views known.  The city has a facebook page where you can post ideas on the budget.  Tell them what your priorities are.
• Talk about it with your neighbors. Two or more heads is probably better than one.

Tomorrow: a discussion of the budget priorities presented by Mr. Morrison on Tuesday.  Then it's back to discussing candidates.