Imagine if you managed your household expenses in the same manner that Naperville city council members control spending of taxpayer dollars. The first thing you would notice is that you would be in huge debt. You would also be saying ‘yes’ to just about every expense you could have. When telephone solicitors called, you would be buying whatever they sell. Your family slogan would be, “Say yes to expense”, just as most Naperville city officials do.
Is there anybody on the Naperville city council who can say ‘no’ to expense? Since June through the first half of November, there have been only two council members who have voted ‘no’ to expense; they are councilman Doug Krause who has voted ‘no’ four times, and councilman Steve Chirico who voted ‘no’ once. That’s it, just those two. Every other council member has voted ‘yes’ to every single expense item brought up for a vote. That’s seven council members in total who can’t seem to say ‘no’ to expense.
What is even more troubling, is that during that five month plus period of time, there have been a total of only 25 questions asked by council members concerning expense items on the agendas. More than half of those questions (15) have been asked by Chirico (6), Krause (5), and councilman Paul Hinterlong (4).
Council members Joe McElroy and Dave Wentz have asked three questions each, Wehrli has asked one question, while council members Judith Brodhead and Bob Fieseler have asked only one question each.
And the council member who since the first of June has not seen an expense that he didn’t like, nor did he even question an expense is Naperville Mayor George Pradel. For anybody out there anywhere, who wants to sell anything, George Pradel is your ticket to prosperity.
Other than Krause and Chirico, the others are willing to buy anything, though they may have a question or two.
For those of you who want to see what you and your children owe in Naperville debt read Sandy Glass’s analysis.
http://www.naperville.il.us/emplibrary/FY13CAFR.pdf
On page 135 of the 2013 CAFR the debt of Government Obligation Bonds is $164,800,00 or $1,115.66 PER CAPITA! But if you look on page 136 you will see that other debt (not including the Bonds) for the City of Naperville is $408,891,239. Oops, but it gets better as on pages 72 IMRF UNFUNDED Pension debt is over $35 Million, page 73 the Police UNFUNDED pension is $52M (and see how that number has been growing) and the Fire UNFUNDED pension is $47.5M and growing.
To summarize (and you have to really jump around in the report)
General Obligation Bonds: $164,800,000.
Other Intra-Government debt: $313,860,991.
IMRF Unfunded Pensions: $ 35,000,000. (growing)
Police Unfunded Pensions: $. 52,056,526. (Growing)
Fire Unfunded Pensions: $ 47,595,105. (Growing)
Total Naperville Debt Obligation: $613,312,622.
Population 143,280/$613,312,622 = Naperville debt per capital $4,280.52, that’s only for Naperville. Add on the State and Federal…and well..we are all broke.
Page 137: “Under 1970 Illinois Constitution there is no legal limit for home rule municipalities except as set by the General Assembly.”
Maybe we need to work on setting debt limits for Home Rule Municipalities. I think there are many taxpayers from similar Home Rule communities, who are getting creamed.
The Naperville Electric Company now needs to borrow $30M more, which is about $526.00 per “smart meter” in principle alone. They paid a $72M “premium” to join IMEA or $1,263.00 per “smart meter”. They spend well over $22M on the “smart meter” project, which is about $385.96 per “smart meter”. That’s about $2,174.96 per “smart meter” installed. What happened to the $30M savings that Curran and consultants projected to sell, and force upon citizens? Since that “savings ” appears to have vanished, let’s add another $526.00 to bring the cost to each meter to $2700.00, plus the interest on the bonds.
Next will be “time of use” billing, financially rationing electricity during “peak” hours, when the most fragile of our citizens need power to care for their elderly, sick, and young children. We pay very high property taxes on our homes, only to be penalized for actually using them between the hours of 11AM until 9PM.
This is a “junk” science an economic nightmare. Add this up to the total per capita debt, and it’s a very deep hole that the city keeps digging for us all.
About two years ago, in response to consumer questions about health concerns, one City Council member talked about that fact “We are where we are,” and some sort of gibberish about “scaring the horses.” Go to http://skyvisionsolutions.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/what-if-you-are-wrong-oct-20111.m4v to view the video. He talked about trusting experts and with a non-conservative approach questioned smart grid opponents in saying “What if you’re wrong”? The Council member was not 100% sure that the smart grid was going to be a “huge success,” but yet he stated that “we need to proceed.”
Well, two years later and millions of dollars in the hole, does anyone think that the smart grid is a huge success? The City and its “experts” were certainly wrong on the economics, and the evidence mounts daily that they were wrong on the health issues as well, just refer to the following blog posting for the latest, “The AAEM States ‘The Evidence is Irrefutable.’ Smart Meters Correlate with Adverse Health Effects. … Call for Moratorium” at: http://wp.me/p3nav9-1fn.