It’s Time For City Council To Start Challenging The City Deficient Spending Practices

The political circus at City Council budget hearings for 2017 has begun.  We enjoy watching Finance Chairman Dan McGinn, President Missy Mosby,  Vice President  Jonathan Weaver and City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr do a “balancing act” with past due to bills, advancement on future revenue and proposed tax increases they insist are “negligible”.

In the current 2017 budget hearings, we are waiting for members of City Council to start challenging the city deficient spending practices and do a better job in questioning the continued waste of our hard earned tax dollars by the Winnecke administration.  We have become more concerned about the City’s finances with each passing City Council meeting,

For over a year we suspected that the city finances were in bad shape.  Last week City Council Finance Chairman Dan McGinn disclosed that the city finances are indeed in bad shape.

Some Evansville residents are already struggling to hold on to their homes, buy medications, pay ever-increasing utility bills, and put food on the table.  Young families are scraping to save money for a down payment on a home to put down roots in a city that presently doesn’t have an overabundance of good-paying jobs.

We have been saying for many months that the  City of Evansville Employee Health care funding is in trouble and a day of reconvening is near.   City Council is now telling us that Evansville is expected to have more income tax revenue than in previous years, but council leaders want to cut extraneous funding to reflect a sharp increase in Employee Health costs for city employees.  The City’s Employee Health care plan for its employees is changing next year saving the city about $3.6 million. The cost savings to the city will increase the employees’ deductibles and out-of-pocket expense.

The Mayor’s office budgeted $301,000 for nonprofits in 2017 and council leadership seemed in agreement.  We are now hearing that City Council President Missy Mosby, D-2nd Ward has alleged that she’s being inundated with calls from city employees upset with the proposed changes to the 2017 Employee Health care plan. We wonder where in the world Ms. Mosby has been for the last several years when she and fellow Council members voted for every spending request the Mayor submitted.

It’s time that Council makes some tough choices in order to balance the budget, like laying some employees off, no pay increases for city council, and city employees together with department heads and the Mayor’s staff for 2017.  Of course,  delay the expansion on new exhibits for the Zoo,  eliminating the funding of “political pork barrel” projects, make major reduction to city grants given to area not-for-profits, make cuts to sports grants, suspension of capital projects requested by department heads,  put a freeze on hiring new employees for 2017,  cut the proposed 2017 city budget by 2%. across the board and address the Employee Health care funding problems head-on.

The most important ingredient that we believe has been missing from the discussion about how to stretch the budget is simple; the city administration and the Council needs to adherence to the principle that requires transparency and a willingness to be innovative in order to promote local government efficiencies.

Finally, it looks like former City Council member and Chairman of the Budget Committee John Friend CPA warning that major budget problems will be facing Council in 2017 was spot on!

FOOTNOTE: The new slogan for City Council is ‘PENGUINS OVER CITY EMPLOYEES HEALTH INSURANCE”?