Edited by author 11-16-2008 05:37 PM
http://www.quicktopic.com/5/H/MgGeCpsE3gaWSBMiq9fV

I forgot to post this earlier - the chief of police sent a memo re Junad's concern for coyotes - I posted on Bug House because of the length

Ann -thank you for the post on coyotes - I reposted to Evanstonnow.com -under my blog - under "Warning on Coyotes" more people who are aware the better.

When you take info off our board, please give the great 8th ward message board credit.

Ann - I could support the holiday party if prior to attending each employee were asked to complete a survey indicating 5 suggestions for saving Evanston's taxpayers money.

A separate section would include their recommendation for 1 staff position that they would eliminate if they were in charge of spending taxpayer dollars and weren't meeting their budget.

Apart from that...I don't support a taxpayer funded party if there is any indication that raising taxes may be necessary to meet our City budget.

Edited by author 11-17-2008 10:30 AM
taxes won't be increased because of a $5,000-$7,000 party.

Staff will not be cut because the manager wants to improve morale given the mass exodus under Carroll's reign.

Property taxes are going up unless there are:
big service cuts (what to do with left over employees),
properties are returned to the tax rolls,
new and creative sources of revenue are initiated,
big increases in fees, other taxes & fines,
or we short change your pension contribution for police and fire,
we get substantial infusion for certain services from the feds,
we win the powerball or whatever it is called.

We cannot hold the line on taxes and not reduce spending.

Ryan - you have a great idea, I am concerned that we would hire a consultant to review the surveys!

Let us start a new discussion based on Ryan's employee suggestion.

As an 8th ward resident, regardless of whether you own or rent(we all pay property taxes) what do you think should be cut from the city budget?


By the way, let's say a christmas party costs $7500. I have no info that this is the cost but just guessing. Then let us take an 8th ward property tax bill of $7500. Given that about 20% of what you pay goes to the city, it would take the yearly property tax payments of 5 homeowners to cover that cost.

Re: Employee Survey

I sometimes think that the best suggestions come from within an organization. As a citizen, I don't know where money could be saved. However, in my own private business I do...as do my employees.

Just this morning I spent $6.52 for a coffe cake at Bennison's for our Monday staff meeting. I thought it was a nice thing to do for my employees. If push came to shove and I had to cut something I could cut this and save the business $326 each year. That's one example. I don't even want to think what it cost for me to attend our 4 night national conference in Philadelphia.

Why pay a consultant to tally the surveys? I bet there is a senior or group of seniors at the Levy Center who might take this up as a mission.

Linking this "survey" with the Christmas party was mean-spirited of me. I wouldn't do that in my company nor would I do it for city employees but I do believe it would have value conducting it as an independent event.

What if we offered to take that $7,500 and split it up as "prize" money for the employees who came up with the best suggestions? What if the Christmas party (by department) was paid for with departmental budget surpluses?

This is 5 minutes of brainstorming... It always seems that the burden for saving the City money is put on the citizen...."come to this budget session" or "this public meeting". Why can't some of this fall on the employees? Maybe it does and the results just aren't shared?

Let me ask this - how many budget cuts failed last year because a small (less than 100 people) group came out against it? I think this problem needs to be solved if we expect the budget to be reduced. We've discussed the library branches, and redundant social services, and the Township. I'd still like to see numbers on the Elm Tree program that show we're saving money by injecting the trees instead of removing and replacing them.

As for the party, if I've calculated correctly, $7,500 out of the current budget is .0035%. Out of my taxes, excluding the far larger amount going to schools and the county, this comes to a one-time annual payment of $0.016 at my tax rate.

I have two questions regarding the party: have we done it in the past? Are there any other social occasions during work hours that the City pays for? I think for a single instance, especially if it's a tradition, one and a half pennies per household is reasonable.

The city party is an extended lunch at the Civic Center - not everyone attends at the same time and no departments are closed. People come and go as they can during the lunch period. I believe the city provides the food and possibly some other items.Staff volunteers support the activity by decorating, serving, etc.

Some time ago, former Finance Director Stafford, at one of the budget hearings had the attendees rank order city functions and services. I assumed this was the start of a zero based or value analysis budgeting process.

Nothing ever came of it.

Vito -

If I get your drift what you're saying is, "Fine....take a survey of the employees...the City won't do anything with it. They didn't do anything with similar citizen surveys in the past."?

P.S. Were you one of the seniors I proposed who would be tabulating those surveys?

Edited by author 11-17-2008 01:56 PM
Michele and all:

Forget the party - and by the way, the $300,000 over levied for the township is a miniscule part of your tax bill.

I think it is a mistake to think about expenditures in this way. Why? Because, even $8 and $9 million expenditures begin to look meaningless when analyzed in that way. Let me show you, Michele:

These are 2008 - 2009 numbers

total cost of running the city - all funds
219,106,277.00
                                    
general fund, police pension, fire pension and debt service
124,442,918.00

2008-9 tax levy
38,044,670.00

% charged to your property taxes (what is shown on your property tax bill for the cost of total cost of general fund,police pension, fire pension and debt service only)
0.305720

Michele's % of the cost of running the city all funds0.000002

Michele's % share of the general fund, police pension, fire pension and debt service
0.000004
Michele's % share of the 2008-9 tax levy
0.000013

Why would you care about any expense in the city when looked at in this way?


This discussion points out exactly why your taxes have not been addressed. . The defenders of employee parties are vehement that it is only a small amount of tax dollars, they point to other budget items they don't want to spend on but that others support, “why not cut those things?”

At some point we have to look at cuts that will not affect the operation of government or severely impact the quality of life in our community. If we do not, the tax payers are losers.

Or we could push forward and those who aren't as fortunate to have relatively low taxes or relatively healthy incomes can just move.

I don't disagree with your point, Ann - I wonder what the actual cost to me per year is for adding and cutting when it comes to the City's budget hearings. In another way of looking at it, City taxes going up 10% would mean an individual tax bill goes up by less than 3% right?

This is not to say that I don't think there are places to cut the budget, nor am I saying that taxes should go up: it's that our tax bill is more representative of the tax dollars are going to other places, in large part D65 and D202, which don't seem to see the kind of activism the City budget does. For instance, if D65 reduced its taxes by 10%, we'd be talking about a significant amount of money.

Well, I love you, Michele, but I am not just thinking of you.

We have business and minuscule industry and other residents that are not as fortunate as you. For example some of very modest means have tax bills that are 10 and 12 times your bill. Those who were uttering your calmness 10 years ago are now feeling the pain of a rising city budget. Do not get into the trap of blaming the schools.

I’m sorry I don’t know, but who controls the schools tax rate? Is there any way of stopping them from raising taxes?

Which was the point I was making earlier when I said taxes should not go up and I think there are places to cut the budget. However, I think many people look at their tax bill and think "cutting taxes" means their whole bill will go down; this may account for why the municipal 20% of our tax dollars get the fine-tooth comb treatment, but the 3 school districts' 60% don't.

Tim, I believe they are under the control of each District's Superintendent and School Board.