It’s all relative when you’re talking budget deficits of trillions of dollars for the federal government, or billions for state government, or millions for local government. In this case it’s a $3 million budget deficit for the city of Naperville, but according to Karen DeAngelis, finance director for Naperville, it’s “O.K.” which means ‘no problem’. What’s a few million dollars here and there.
That in essence crystallizes the problem with government; as long as it’s not their dollars, then it’s no problem. And it’s especially not their problem when all the city of Naperville has to do is squeeze it out of the local residents with higher taxes and fees, including a water rate increase of almost 15%, and most assuredly electric rates due to the Naperville city council Smart Meter fiasco.
It’s a ‘perfect storm’ scenario in Naperville; 1) very weak leadership at the city manager level, 2) inadequate overview by the Naperville city council, and 3) over spending by the city. The city of Naperville’s motto should be changed to “A penny saved is an oversight”
There is a portion of the city council meeting (Consent agenda) that deals with the approval of expenses. During this time, hundreds of thousands of dollars are being tossed around, and chances are that members of the council spend more time discussing the toppings on their pizza, than in reducing expenses. It appears that Naperville city officials find it much easier to extract dollars from residents rather than to question expense or creatively reduce it.
So I suggest taking a page from Naperville city council playbook and I make a motion that when Naperville residents spend more than they earn for any particular month, that they simply meander down to city hall and tap council members and the city manager for a few bucks here and there to cover their deficit. That way if a resident has a budget deficit, it’s O.K……no problem.
It’s amazing how blasé these people are when spending money they don’t have like when they declared we can hire a IT strategic consultant for 100k even though it’s not in the budget but we can cover it anyway by increases sales revenues.
They brag about how they cut payrolls and then hire causals and consultants which cost just as much and in some cases more.
The weeping and gnashing of teeth is about to begin when the pension liabilities come home to roost after the Nov. elections and they kill us with electric rate increases and school tax raises another 4%.
These turkeys who can get excited by debating codes on raising chickens need to read the good book especially the admonition of putting away in bountiful years for the lean years. Since they have done neither we will have to make bricks without straw and freeze in the winter to pay our bills.
From the Naperville Sun:
“Exciting for DeAngelis, the Finance Director of the city of Naperville, for sure. But it’s also something that could be exciting for the area, and perhaps the entire state.
DeAngelis had just been preparing a report for the Naperville City Council on how sales tax, and almost all revenue sources for the city, are on the rise. That includes income tax, real estate transfer tax and permit fees.
For the four months of May through August, DeAngelis said those revenue items were up 40 percent from the same four months last year.
“The last time we had this number was the summer of 2007,” she said.”
Will the Council lower the tax rate INCREASE they imposed on all of us In 2009? Our property values plummeted, yet the City raised our tax rates to 0.7367 from .7167? Or will Council, with City Managers blessings continue to squeeze the taxpayer?