Last night's Truth in Taxation hearing should be renamed to Money Hide and Seek. C. M. Ostrow presided and made it clear that the Council Members would ANSWER NO QUESTIONS. It was one of those "listening events".
I didn't stay long because there was such a long line of other people signed up to speak. The ones that I did hear were all asking for more money. Not only do we have no representation on the Council, but those of us who pay the heavy tax burden are also discouraged from commenting. Below, I have converted the budget pie charts into real dollars. The total SPENDING budget is once again $1.2 Billion. Here is the 2005 budget breakdown in descending order with comments. 2005 Public Works: $240 million. The 2003 CAFR reports show ACTUAL public works expenditures as $68.3 million, water works expenditures as $46.8 million, and sewer expenditures as $56.7 million. If municipal parking and solid waste expenditures are included in this category, in 2003 they were $62.8 million and $23.6 million respectively. The total ACTUAL expenditures in 2003 for these five categories were $258 million. 2005 Debt Service: $144 million. The 2003 CAFR reports show ACTUAL debt service expenditures as $44 million in Table 1. Table 3 however shows total debt service expenditures as $119.6 million. Who knows?! 2005 CPED/MCDA: $144 million. The 2003 CAFR reports show ACTUAL community development expenditures as $122 million. 2005 Unidentified (Other) spending: $96 million 2005 Transfers to Unidentified destinations: $96 million 2005 Capital Improvements: $96 million The 2003 CAFR reports show ACTUAL capital improvements as $59.7 million. 2005 Police: $96 million 2005 Fire: $48 million The 2003 CAFR reports show ACTUAL public safety expenditures as $169 million. 2005 Park Board: $72 million 2005 City Coordinator: $60 million 2005 Convention Center: $36 million 2005 Library Board: $24 million 2005 Licenses & Inspections Dept: $24 million 2005 Health & Family Support: $12 million The 2003 CAFR reports show ACTUAL expenditures for health and welfare as $23.5 million 2005 City Attorney: $12 million Calculations provided by Vicky Heller North Oaks and Cedar-Riverside REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
