Becker wrote:
See below -- it appears some of those departments fall into other budgets, rather than the "other" spending.The $97 million of "other" spending should be identified, since it is equivalent to the entire police department.
This is all laid out in the budget books and contains departments like the City Council, the Mayor, Finance, Human Resources, Assessor, Civil Rights, etc.
Until the debts and debt service are eliminated, the City should suspend
payments to "Other Independent Boards." Citizens should be willing to
contribute without expecting compensation. What are all of these boards
anyway? What do they do? Why can't the City Council make those decisions?
The independent boards include the Park Board, the Library Board, the[Vicky Heller] Here are the 2003 Minneapolis budgeted expenditures: They total $1.22 billion.
Municipal Building Commission (City Hall is technially owned half by the
City and half by the County) and the Board of Estimate and Taxation. I
think they now throw the Youth Coordinating Board too. Again, all of this
is outlined in the Budget Books.
231,800,000 Public Works 146,400,000 MCDA 122,000,000 Capital Improvement 122,000,000 Debt Service 97,600,000 Other 97,600,000 Police 97,600,000 Transfers to Other Funds 73,200,000 Park Board 48,800,000 Fire Dept 48,800,000 City Coordinator 24,400,000 Health & Family Support 24,400,000 Convention Center 24,400,000 Licenses & Inspections 24,400,000 Library Board 24,400,000 Other Independent Boards 12,200,000 City Attorney
Chris writes: Note that the Park Board and the Library Board have separate line items for $73 million and $24 million each. So how on earth can they also fall into the $24 million for "other independent boards?"
Note that the City Coordinator has a $48 million budget. Doesn't that include Finance, Assessor, Civil Rights, etc? If not, what the heck does the City Coordinator need $48 million for?
As for being cut to the bone -- no doubt the state has made repeated cuts to the city. But to claim there are no inefficiencies left and any further cuts must cut important services is misleading.
Let's take the Park Board for example, because they are the spendthrifts with whom I most familiar at the moment. Did we really need to sink millions of dollars into an inaccessible set of soccer fields at Fort Snelling? Did we need to sink $6 million plus into an extravagant Park Board headquarters? Those are just big bank-busters. Then there's the little nickel and dimes, like the loss by employee embezzlement at the Lake Harriet concession of thousands of dollars, or giving away a lease easily valued north of $200,000 for a mere $72,000, and throwing in over $200,000 worth of improvements paid by the taxpayers to Jon Gurban and the Minnesota Recreation and Park Association. It goes on and one like that. And it only costs $13,000 to keep a beach open, so how many beaches are closed this year for lack of funds due to financial mismanagement?
The point is, there's plenty of room to question the city budget without cutting essential services. As they like to say in private industry, you just have to work smarter.
Chris Johnson - Fulton
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