City Council Meeting

The city council meets tomorrow night. Comparatively short agenda, if the consent agenda passes without problem, though discussion on the budget will probably make up for that. I certainly hope the council does not put out another call for every organization that would like money from the city to apply for it. There are too many groups out there wanting money and the city is not particularly flush with it. I want to see fire and police funded adequately and maintenance functions maintained. Anything after that is icing on the cake.

Illinois Budget

Charlie Wheeler thinks there may be some light at the end of the budget tunnel.  I hope he is right.

State Leaders Meeting

Using the term "leaders" a bit sarcastically, as the governor and the heads of the state legislature have not met in about 6 months, Governor Rauner and the 4 legislative heads are scheduled to meet tomorrow. Given the seriousness of the situation, one would think they could have managed to meet monthly or even weekly, instead of debating the issues under consideration thorugh the media rather than in person.

Still No Budget

As Illinois Issues points out, we still don't have a budget and have no sign of one on the horizon. The governor's last proposal relies on projections that show little evidence of coming to pass while the legislature's does not include funding to cover its spending

State Museum Closing?

According to this story from Illinois Issues, both the Illinois State Museum and Dickson Mounds State Park may close because of lack of funds. It appears neither is considered vital enough to state operations to continue funding them in the current budgetary climate.

Additional Taxes

Much like most people, I am not a fan of additional taxes. However, given the difficulty the city currently faces, I would not mind an increase in the sales tax, with a sunset clause, to cover the pension funding deficit. I would not want to see a tax increase to fund any additional city projects until we have current city expenditures back in balance.

State Budget and State Constituion

Rather interesting that a strict reading of the Illinois Constitution indicates that it does not require a balanced budget. Rather, what the appropriate section says is that:

The General Assembly by law shall make
appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the
State. Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed
funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available
during that year.

Ergo, the constitution only requires that the legislature keep spending within funding estimated available for the year. It does not require appropriations to be adjusted for actual funding or to address outstanding bills left over from prior years when actual revenues fell short of estimates.

Neighborhood Business District Tabled

The council spent about two hours last night not coming to a conclusion on how to modify the description of a Neighborhood Business District. The main sticking point, and it is a major one, is how to deal with larger commercial buildings grandfathered into what is now a residential area.

The primary sticking point is the area surrounding the intersection of Sycamore and Oakland, as the old Carbondale High School, National Guard Armory and Coke distribution nee Oakland Avenue Auto Repair buildings, all build before current zoning regulations went into effect but none of which are suitable for residential use.  How does the city, and by extension its residents, let the owners make use of their property while still maintaining the residential aspect of the area? While Oakland Avenue Auto Repair operated, those living in adjoining houses complained of auto exhaust coming into their homes on a regular basis. Going out your front door to a face full of car fumes is not what the residents expected when moving into their properties.

A proposal requiring towing services to provide additional tie downs around the wheels and detachable lights on the rear end of towed cars died for lack of a motion after strong arguments against the ordinance by local towing companies. Expense, possible damage to towed vehicles and increase in towing time, all argued by the towing companies, convinced council members not to move forward with the regulation.

Rather surprisingly, the budget passed with little discussion and only one comment from the audience, a call for further cuts to the budget including civic center staff and police department officers.

Council went into closed session about 10:40.

City Council and Budget

City Council meets tonight at 7 p.m.  On the agenda are a communication from the Concerned Citizens for Carbondale regarding their ongoing concerns over the BrightFields/Koppers development and a discussion of the 2104 budget.  Given the stated shortage of funding the city forsees, I hope they take a close look at the funding and determine if it is really necessary for a department to get the new vehicle for which it asked for funding or if the current vehicles will serve for awhile longer.

City Council Meeting

The Carbondale Observer has done a good job of summarizing last Tuesday's City Council meeting.  I only caught the first hour and  had some observations/comments based on that:

Local Attorney Hugh Williams spoke for a good five minutes on the subject of the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau, calling for the city to pull all funding from the organization, which would reduce the CCTB's budget by some 70%.  I have seen figures indicating the CCTB already plans to cut expenses, reducing funding to local organizations and cutting the budget for its website from $8000 to $3000.  Executive Director Debbie Moore attending the meeting, sitting in the back row, but, if she spoke, it was after 8 p.m.

Don Monty is establishing himself as the most knowledgeable member of the city council and the most focused on details.  He pulled two items out of the warrants just so that people watching the council meeting would know what boards and commissions  had their minutes approved and whom the mayor had appointed to the CCTB board.  Later, he was the only member of the council to want to discuss the budget and it appeared he wanted to critique the way in which city staff had drafted it but he would up saying staff had done a very good job developing it.

Council seemed leery of taking up the proposal to criminalize spending the night on city property with hesitations on both the motion and second.  Concerns included freedom of speech issues,camping at Cedar Lake and the effect on groups like the Lion's Club who may spend the night on city property preparing for their pancake breakfasts.  Lee Fronabarger eventually withdrew his original motion and Corene McDaniels her second.  Technically, I don't think that was permissible under standard parliamentary procedure, as once a motion has been seconded, it can't be withdrawn but must have some action taken on it.  However, the council, like most organizations today, doesn't adhere to strict Roberts' Rules of Order.

City Council Meeting

City Council meets tomorrow at 7.  Main item on the agenda is a discussion of the 2013 budget, including the proposed $50,000 cut to the CCTB budget.  Retailed to that is the mayor's appointment of 8 members to the CCTB board, which is a consent item but may get pulled out for discussion, especially in the aftermath of the CCTB board's decision last week to increase its size by a third.

More on CCTB Budget

If you missed it, the Carbondale Times has a breakdown of where the money goes for the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau.  The CCTB's total budget runs a hair over $405,000 with most of that ($317,500) coming from the C'dale hotel/motel tax. The rest comes from the county, state and various grants. 

47% of that goes for salaries. Another 30% goes for insurance, administration, rent and technical support (which I assume includes the CCTB website). That leaves about 23% of the budget for promotional activities and special projects.  Since from what I see from the CCTB's strategic plan, most of its focus is on promoting Carbondale and the region, I would think a greater percentage of the budget would focus on those activities.

Mayor Fritzler's proposal to pull $120,000 from the CCTB budget would reduce the CCTB budget by 30%. According to CCTB executive director Debbie Moore, if this cut takes place, the Bureau would have to eliminate the following:

 --match a $37,500 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to support the use of locally grown specialty crops.

-- a proposal to the  Illinois Office of Tourism for a tourism attraction development grant.

--cultural heritage partnership project  for a proposed single-day heritage festival in the city. Among event sites listed were the Varsity Center for the Arts and the Fuller Dome Home.

--community youth golf team and expanded efforts to bring Amateur Athletic Union tournaments to the park district's Hickory Ridge Public Golf Center.

--CCTB's  development of arts-centered marketing designed to bring cultural tourists to the city.

--New visitor guides

--Community contributions to Lights Fantastic Parade, July 4 fireworks display, and CMS Friday Night Fair

From what I see, if the proposed $120,000 cut goes through, the CCTB would, at least according to Executive Director Moore, cut almost all of its promotional activities, which is the primary reason for the organization's existance in the first place and rely on the Bureau's website for outreach and promotion.

State Employee Pensions

Given the concern over state employee pensions and its effect on Carbondale's budget, I thought yesterday's Diane Rehm show on the topic was quite interesting.

Unpaid Days Off at SIUC

Looks like Chancellor Cheng is going after hourly workers first in order to cut expenses, negotiating with 4 of the campus unions to take 4 unpaid days off through the school year. I read a comment by Cheng saying they had looked at cutting upper level administrative salaries to help balance the budget but that idea was dismissed. Figures.

The university has a better chance of faculty and unions to accept unpaid days off if upper administration takes cuts first, showing that "we're all in this together." If Chancellor Cheng had announced that top salaried members of the administration were taking a one year pay cut, she'd show they were serious about taming the budget and would have a better chance of getting lower level faculty and staff to go along willingly. As it is, since the first major budget balancing moves she's announced come at the expense of faculty and staff, she will likely get her was but with a lot more grumbling and dissatisfaction.

State Budgeet Proposals

Though he doesn't have a chance of winning, Rich Whitney is the only candidate to have actually proposed a budget that will close the $13 billion budget gap Illinois faces. Unless you really believe there is $13 billion worth of fraud and waste in the budget, cutting the budget isn't going to do it. Brady's plan is pretty non-specific. His proposal to cut the budget by 10% would produce about $3 billion (assuming it gets thorough the legislature), leaving the state still short by $10 billion and Quinn's website doesn't address budget issues much. The closest I could find was this.

Luchtefeld Again

Got the opportunity to sit in on an hour long conference call with Sen. Dave Luchtefeld last night. MOst of what he had to say repeated his comments from the Chapber of Commerce lunch yesterday i.e. the state is in lot of financial trouble, we need serious budget reform, a good chunk of it is Michael Madigan's fault for focusing on staying in power rather than doing things that might cause the Democrats to get voted out.

I was bemused to hear several of the callers ask him questions and comment about getting out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and not touching Social Security, since he has nothing to do with either of them. Guess some folks just wanted to vent. State pensions were another popular topic, with several people asking what could be done, if anything, about reducing them.

Sales Tax

Just a reminder that the C'dale sales tax increases by .5% today to 8.25%. The extra money will go to cover projected short falls in the city budget.

Jerry C. on the Economy

Email from Jerry C., trying to make sure no one runs against him based on the economy or the budget:

I have been hearing from many constituents about two topics related to our economy and the federal budget. The first is requests for federal assistance to deal with the economic downturn, particularly the need to further extend unemployment benefits and prevent the impending layoffs of thousands of teachers nationwide. The other is increased federal spending and the size of the federal deficit and debt.

These are critically important issues, and I understand and share the concern for both. Many economists agree that the stimulus legislation that the Congress passed last year is responsible for stabilizing our economy, and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office credits it with saving or creating 2.8 million jobs while cutting taxes for 98% of American families. At the same time, this bill increased the federal deficit.

Much of the stimulus spending has gone directly to state governments, many of which are in economic crisis. In Illinois, the stimulus bill has kept school districts and universities operating, and in our area has been particularly important for Southern Illinois University. While we have seen some economic improvement in recent months – including three straight quarters of economic growth and the addition of over 900,000 jobs since December 2009 – unemployment remains too high. Millions of Americans are out of work and depend on federal unemployment benefits to provide basic needs for their families.

Meanwhile, our deficit has continued to increase at an alarming rate. In addition to the stimulus bill, Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) spending and the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other things, contributed to the increase in the deficit. While it is expected that the deficit will be reduced drastically in coming years, falling to $533 billion by 2013, that is still a significant number, particularly when you remember that we achieved a balanced federal budget during the second term of the Clinton administration. There is general concern that high deficits will lead to inflation in the near term, and our $13 trillion national debt is a serious burden on future generations.

As you may know, I voted against the TARP legislation (bank bailout) and opposed the Iraq War, which has cost close to $1 trillion. I voted for the stimulus bill because, given the severity of the economic downturn, it was necessary to strengthen our economy, and I believe it has accomplished that goal. However, I am concerned about significant additional federal spending to support state governments. Like the federal government, the states are going to have to make tough budget decisions.

At the federal level, we are being asked to support people who are out of work and in great need, while keeping a close watch on federal spending. These are not easy decisions, and I will continue to evaluate legislation with these competing interests in mind. Moving forward, we may not be able to provide as much assistance to people and the states as many would like, and we may not in the short term be able to fully offset the cost of all federal spending. But working together, we can continue to chart a course that builds on our economic recovery and helps those in great need while beginning to address our long-term economic problems.

City Council Meeting

Tomorrow night's city council meeting should prove interesting to put it lightly, give then about 6 jobs are on the line. Here's the agenda as of right now. The adoption of the 2010-2011 budget is the last item on the agenda so hopefully we'll see most of those attending staying around until the end of the meeting.

Once again, I'm not hearing any other proposals for balancing the budget. People don't like this one but it balances the city's finances. If you're opposed to it that's all well and good, but as of now, its the only option on the table. Changing the liquor cap regulations to allow more stores to sell liquor would certainly bring in more sales tax revenue and probably keep a couple of those jobs that are on the line.

Oxen Being Gored

A number of local social service agencies are looking at having their funding from the city either reduced significantly or zeroed out completely under the proposal from city manager
Allen Gill. According to this weeks C'dale Times, Attucks Community Services and I CAN READ would receive no funding under the proposed budget, nor would the Lights Fantastic Parade, Lions Club fireworks show, or Carbondlae Junior Sports, among others. Decreased funding would go to the Boys and Girls Club (down $2782), Carbondale Community Arts (down $10,281), Senior Adult Services (down $3291) and the Sunset Concerts (down $2233), with several other organizations receiving cuts of under $1000 each. A total of eighteen groups will see their funding cut.

These are only proposed cuts. The city wants to get the numbers out now, so that people have a chance to discuss them before the actual budget is adopted in April. Even with the new sales tax, the city is still coming in $200,000-$300,000 over budget, mainly due to the state mandated cost of city pensions. Until that is changed, or we see an increase in the economy, projected city expenses will still exceed revenues and cuts will have to be made somewhere, but nobody likes to see their favored program go under the ax.