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11/4/2009
Public Hearing tonight, City of Appleton’s 2010 Budget
6:00 tonight, November 4, 6th Floor, 100 North Appleton St.
I’ve not gone through the budget with a fine tooth comb as I did the many years I served on the Council. Rather, I primarily looked at the spending and tax details.
Spending increased by 3% in a year when CPI is 0%. Compensation packages increased at 3% and more annually. The total tax levy increased 6.6% - again in a year when the CPI is less than 0% and when most taxpayers are seeing no increases in their take home pay – if they have the good fortune of having a job at all. The tax rate is actually down by a penny or two from 2009.
(The Finance and Budget gremlins are able to increase the total tax levy while actually decreasing the tax rate because all sorts of land value was added to the city when one of the Tax Incremental Districts was closed. And when it closed, not only did it add millions of dollars in taxable property to the tax rolls, the TID’s “leftover” reserves added $2.3M to city coffers! Wow. What a gift. And still, the tax levy increased.)
Ok, I understand. Same old story. The state gave us less money and the state increased our costs – as in much higher garbage fees and higher contributions for employee retirement. So any reason why we can’t spend less?
Just as a side note, below are contributions the city – taxpayers and fee-payers – makes for each employee for their retirement – as a percentage of an employee’s salary.
Police: 17.7%
Fire: 18.8%
Elected officials (Mayor, City Clerk, Attorney): 11.9%
All other – “General”: 11.0%
Many positives in the budget – the most positive being the city’s stellar debt rating and disciplined borrowing. (p. 621)
One specific item I have b-i-i-i-g questions about (p. 643). Over the top stuff that pretty much ticks me off. The Feds are telling us we have to re-do all of our signs to meet their spankin’ new retroreflectivity (eek, what’s that?) standards. More about that on FoxPolitics here.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
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| 2009 |
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• Important votes Tuesday, including Appleton Common Council
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