MAYOR’S SPOKESPERSON MISSES THE MARK
Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley by 3rd Ward City Council Member
I’m not sure what’s more frightening, that a candidate wrote something so irresponsible or that people might actually believe it.
Republican candidate Jack Schriber attacks City Council in this Comment to the Courier & Press and states a lack of understanding of why City Council was reluctant to immediately transfer $8 million from Riverboat funds and the City’s Rainy Day fund to cover essential operating expenses. In expressing his inability to understand the Council’s delayed action on the transfer, he claims that the City has 145 million dollars in assets and investments with 52 million in cash. It’s interesting how he never touches on why with so much money the City would need to get into its emergency funds.
To catch everyone up, City Council recently passed an ordinance that required rainy day and Riverboat funds to be kept in their own bank account. Rainy day funds are funds that are not counted in determining the amount of revenue needed in a given year for tax purposes and require State approval to spend. This is our emergency fund, and there is about $3 million in the fund. Riverboat funds are by a mid 1990’s resolution only to be used on capital projects. Mayor McDonald sought and passed the resolution when the casino came to town with the hope that the City would never become dependent on the windfall funds. The City gets about $13 million from the casino annually and typically budgets all of it for capital projects. Right now, these funds with rainy day funds total about $16 million. This $16 million are the only funds segregated.
So with the City allegedly having $145 million at its disposal, why do they need $8 million out of these segregated funds? It would seem that the Jack Schribers of the world want it both ways. They want to proclaim the financial strength of the City by throwing out this huge number and then simultaneously decry the act of protecting a measly $16 million for capital needs and emergencies. Could it be that the whopping $145 million alleged isn’t real, or at least not in the sense they would have you believe?
Let’s break it down. The assets of the Evansville Sewer and Water Utility are included in the $145 million number. In fact, its assets make up the bulk of the number at $93 million. The Sewer department is sitting on about $67 million with loans and rate increases coupled with the fact that the Combined Sewer Overflow Plan has not been approved by the EPA. Remember that $600 million project that the federal government is making us do to stop our raw sewage from flowing into the Ohio River and Pigeon Creek?
The Water Department has also taken out loans and had three years of rate increases and is working on replacing those 100 year old pipes that are only good for 100 years. The funds are nowhere near what are needed for the projects, and there’s this pesky state law that doesn’t allow what’s captured from rate payers to be used on spending unrelated to the water and sewer departments. And that’s a good thing. Given the rate increases to come to complete these projects, we don’t want our Utility being used as a piggy bank for the City.
Now let’s look at the $52 million that Schriber claims is in cash. It’s not in cash. It would be unethical for this kind of money to be kept in cash. The City has an obligation to the citizens to act as a fiduciary related to our money. The money is mostly in certificates of deposit or in the Hoosier Fund. The Hoosier Fund allows for investing funds with no required period of investment. We roll money in and out of investment status ad nauseam. There are more transfers in a given week to jockey money around at the Controller’s office than you or I make at our own banks in a year.
But, let’s get back to the $52 million. We’ve only segregated about $16 million. What gives with the other $36 million? Why can’t they use those funds to pay their bills? We have to go deeper on this question. There are Tax Increment Finance funds in that pile that can only be spent within certain areas of the City and on certain types of projects. There are bond payments in there too that our rating agencies like to know are safe. We also have pension funds for the retired police and fire fighters in that mix that are also restricted in use. And there’s legitimately some certificates of deposit of funds slated for projects far enough down the road that they could be invested for 3, 6 or 12 months. When we get down to it, the $52 million that Schriber heralds is all spoken for in one way or another. With a total budget (Utility, City Civil and Capital) budget that tops $300 million, there are a lot of moving parts, and what may sound like a lot of money really isn’t much in the big picture.
Ultimately, the City can’t make payroll later this month and despite the official number of $145 million in cash and investments, they need to get into the $16 million that we squirreled away to keep safe. The transfer will have to occur, and I will vote for it. The ordinance wasn’t created to impede government but to get accurate financial information in real time. The hope was that the transparency required by the ordinance would trigger healthy debate about our upside down financial picture and how we cope with stagnant revenue and rising fixed costs. This type of comment from Schriber flies in the face of honest debate we’re entitled to and should be having.
A link to the Community Comment is here: http://www.courierpress.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/commentary-council-handcuffing-mayor-city-staff_83028728
Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley
3rd Ward City Council Member
Excellent article by SBR, and I applaud C&P for running this prominently in Section A on Sunday.
John Friend: your corresponding article states that General Fund is a negative ($ 9,000,000) as of 7-31-15. Jack Smack Schriber says it is positive $ 52 Million. Is there any set of numbers that would give Schriber an out for this lie–i.e., there are Investments of $ 61 Million that offset the Cash deficit of $ -9 Million to arrive at $ 52 Million ?
Trying to give Schriber the benefit of a doubt–but I can’t given this disconnect. Please help.
Dear Green Light,
The General Fund balance as published by Winnecke for July 2015 is 9.7 m in the hole compared to 3.4 in the hole for July 2014 . .the losses in operational funds for the fiscal year ending July 31, 2015 are nearly $13 m compared to 6.7 m one year earlier. Our true available funds as of July 31, 2015 are 34 m and the magic number is 29 m based on the fact that the General Fund eats at a rate of 230k per day . .we are approaching critical mass and this administration is either inept or diabolical . .probably somewhere in between. Lay-off’s are on the horizon. Enjoy the Kool-Aid.
@Meter Maid: thanks for the information.
Need to put the General Fund on a diet. Eating up cash at $ 230,000 per day will make it fat and the community poor . …
So what you are saying, if I may, is that Jack Schriber had no basis whatsoever to make the statement that there was $ 52 Million in the General Fund ?
Your decision not to run for office again is a huge loss to this city. The fact that pants-on-fire Jack Schriber decided to run and insult the intelligence of voters is also a great loss for us.
+1
+1 more
Perhaps when Gail is in the mayor’s office, she will have an appointment position for SBR where this every intelligent and talented woman can help the city become better despite what some may try to do to it.
Always informative and understandable.
I wouldn’t heap all of the blame for Black Jack’s error-laden diatribe the other day on Schriber himself. The administration, the same one that modeled his yard signs after Winnecke’s and was quick with the public ‘good lucks’ when he had his health issue a few months ago, stoked him with pliable numbers. He probably thought ‘these guys wouldn’t lie to me, they wouldn’t give me this fodder for my column if it wasn’t valid. They wouldn’t leave me hanging out there’.
They will eventually use him up or so taint him that he has nowhere else to go. I feel sorry for Black Jack Schriber, but not too much.
We’ll soon know who’s next down the list to carry the dirty water for our failed mayor. They just might call Hargis’ number. Failing that, The Phoenix is taking his warm up swings and eager to show his loyalty.
Give me a break. SBR knows what this sleight of hand ordinance is yet still voted for it tonight. Politics as usual.
She was also the person who backed the City Controller into a corner of his own making concerning the use of the Riverboat Funds. Russ Lloyd sounded like an idiot with his nonsensical and evasive answers to her questions.
She is also the person who should be occupying that 3rd floor office, in my humble opinion.
Comments are closed.