EDITORS NOTE:  Posted below is a Letter to The Editor Of The City County Observer written by Mayoral candidate Gail Riecken on October 7, 2015. At that time we posted her letter without bias, opinion  or editing.  Today we re-post it with opinion.  Our opinion is that it looks like Gail Riecken Letter to the Editor was track on.  Bottom line, it looks like what Mrs. Riecken wrote on October 7, 2015 has proven to be a correct concerning the future financial challenges of our city.
During the City election of 2015 Mayor Winnecke, his Controller Russ Lloyd Jr and his hand picked City Council candidates put a successful political spin that discredited Gail Riecken comments about the city having a looming budget crisis. Â In fact all we heard during that campaign from Mayor Winnecke and his hand picked council candidates was that City of Evansville financial condition was in excellent shape.
What’s even more amazing is that current City Council members Connie Robinson, Dan McGinn, Dr. Dan Adams, Jonathan Weaver and Missy Mosby all knew that Evansville was facing a major budget shortfall concerning the Employee Healthcare program during the 2015 city election. They also were aware that the General Fund was in trouble because of the City excessive spending practices on capital projects. Â Â We know for a fact the former Councilman and Finance Chairman John Friend CPA told all of them on numerous occasions about the looming financial crisis that the City of Evansville faces.
We hope after you read Mrs. Riecken  October 7,  2015 letter you will stand up and demand that our elected city officials start practicing ‘Good Public Policy” concerning the future spending of our heard earned tax dollars!
Please take time and vote in todays “Readers Polls”. Â Today question is: Are you getting sick and tired of our elected and appointed City officials playing political games with our hard earn tax dollars?
RIECKEN CHARGES THAT WINNECKE CONTINUES TO DENY CITY HAS SERIOUS FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
Reading the article from the September 29th newspaper about the transfer of casino and rainy day money reminds me yet again that the city has a serious financial problem that Mayor Winnecke continues to deny. He uses the bond rating and audits to proclaim a solid financial situation. He is confused on the issues. In his September 12 Letter to the Editor he said, “It has been confirmed time and time again by the state’s independent audits and the independent bond rating agencies that the city has operated in a financially sound, efficient and prudent manner.â€
Even if you take Winnecke’s position, he cannot make that claim. The audit for 2014 has not been completed by the State Board of Accounts, so no one has any idea where we stand. Also, it was the dissention over the 2013 audit last year that caught many people’s attention, including mine, that something is wrong with the finances. As for the hotel bonds, why weren’t they higher? After all, payback is guaranteed with casino and COIT (local income tax) monies, just like the arena, which was rated higher than the hotel.
The reality is the city is not financially sound. During his term, the Mayor has decreased the city reserves – with the starting general fund balance going from approximately $4,000,000 to $307,000 in in just three short years. At the same time, the Mayor has increased the city’s debt from $396 million, to $514 million by the end of this year. That is $4,278.32 dollars of debt for every man, woman, and child in the city of Evansville.
Just to stay in the black for 2014 and continue to paint the picture that all is well, the Mayor shored up the general fund with a $2,400,000 advance from the water and sewer utility. Now, we see the Mayor had to borrow from the casino monies and emergency rainy day fund. He has no reserves, he cannot control spending and he does not plan to.
One indicator of government spending is efficiency. There is a table of comparisons on the Gateway Indiana website. From 2012 to 2014, looking at the per person efficiency rates of the top four cities of comparable size to Evansville, Fort Wayne cut their per capita spending by 1.66%. South Bend raised their per-capita spending by .72%. Indianapolis cut their per-capita spending by 4.82%. Evansville increased per capita spending by 4.98%! That is spending $1,877.14 for every man, woman, and child in the city of Evansville. Not only are we the highest in spending, we are way out in front, and the spending is spiraling out of control.
The other issue that came to mind about the City Council meeting on Monday was how the administration refused to tell us exactly how the monies to the casino and rainy day fund will be repaid. If you spend more than you take in (about $600,000 per month) and the November tax monies must help pay the bills till next property tax monies, you tell me how the Mayor is going to pay back the monies.
You can’t ignore the fact there is a shroud that covers the details, whatever the issue, such as why the administration left one accounting method that gives a true picture of the finances or why the council and the public could not get solid financial information on the hotel project.
Time and time again we hear Mayor Winnecke say that “Since taking office, our administration has spent less than what has been budgeted by our City Council every year.â€
This has been the rallying cry of Mayor Winnecke in 2015. However, the details are that he absolutely spent more money than he has brought in (from controller’s financial books). He greatly over-projects revenues during budgeting, and then recognizes the over projection later in the year. However, the problem is, when the revenues are reduced and not coming in, the Mayor does not address reducing spending to be in line with the actual revenues the city is receiving.
Evidence is a budget meeting in the mayor’s office in August or early September of 2014. Mr. Hedden of Umbaugh was on the phone with Councilmembers Dr. Adams, John Friend and Conor O’Daniel, the Mayor. Controller Russ Lloyd and Steve Schaefer. There was one more person from the Controller’s office. In that meeting Mr. Hedden said that the Mayor Needed a spending plan. There has been none to date and it is over a year later and millions more wasted.
The Mayor has nothing in his checking account, and rather than trying to curtail the spending, he simply looks for other bank accounts he can borrow money from to continue his spending spree. If we truly want to get our city back in strong financial standing, we must change the philosophy of government and that means starting with a thorough assessment to find out exactly where we stand financially, department by department. Then we must create a spending plan and a strict budget to make sure that we know where every dollar is. To move forward we must have the continued resources to do so. That means conserving and spending wisely.
Our “cash flow†issue that was addressed at the September 28th City Council meeting is not a cash flow issue at all. The Mayor cannot boldly claim we are financially strong when all evidence is to the contrary. There is an over-spending problem that Mayor Winnecke must face.
Please take time and vote in today’s “Readers Poll”. Don’t miss reading today’s Feature articles because they are always an interesting read. Please scroll at the bottom of our paper so you can enjoy our creative political cartoons. Copyright 2015 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without our permission
Let’s see ..the actual results from operations for 2015 as reported in the Annual Financial Report, after adjusting for the illegal transfer of $12,500,000 from the Riverboat money to the General Fund and Russ’ slight of hand by depositing $7,000,000 from the Local Income Tax fund into the General Fund and then transferred out of the General Fund artificially showing revenue to be $19,500,000 greater than reality, the General Fund spent $12,200,000 more than received ..and after six months (June 30, 2016) Winnecke has spent $8,600,000 of the illegal transfer (Advancement from Tropicana) representing future revenues.
Hey, Ms Maid
You forgot to factor in Winnecke’s failure to transfer nearly $5,000,000 from the General fund in the Hospitalization Fund in order to pay the medical bills for the Cops and Firefighters. And, now as it seems, the FOP and Fire will be picking up the tab. Thus, the entire Trop advancement like the movie, “Gone with the Wind”
Obviously, Gail was dead-on concerning Winnecke’s financial ineptness. The everyday voter apparently is not concerned about wild-eyed spending just look at the National Debt which has over double in eight short years. Until the voter feels that over spending has a direct impact on their daily lives, they will not let it interfere with the way they cast their vote.
Kinda reminds me when I was a child. My father procrastinating over buying the “new” car and I would hope he would. Of course, I wanted my friends to see me in the “new” car. But, one thing I never considered. Somebody, in this case, my father had pay for it. Possibly this is exactly how the public (our community) must feel. Downtown Hotel, Downtown Ford Center, Downtown Med School ..Downtown …Downtown ..etc…etc…etc… So, if the candyman is giving us candy ..then why not
Where is Petula Clark when we need her ?
Downtown.
Just not Evansville’s Downtown.
Maybe we will be seeing more of the following when the 2015 audit shows up:
OVERDRAWN CASH BALANCES
The financial statement presented for audit contained some funds with deficits in cash as of
December 31, 2014. Three of the funds (IHCDA Blight Elimination Fund Grant, Community Dev Block Grant
and Emergency Shelter Grant) are a result of those funds being set up for reimbursable grants. The
reimbursements for expenditures made by the City were not received by December 31, 2014. The Accounts
Receivable Clearing fund has a cash balance deficit due to the nature of the fund. The Parking, Arts District,
Golf Course, Sports Non-Reverting, Park District Bond Refunding 2010, and Hospitalization funds spent more
than they received.
Although the General Fund showed a balance of $307,140 as of December 31, 2014, the fund would
have shown a deficit balance of $5,888,660 as of December 31, 2014, if not for the following items:
1. The Wastewater Utility prepaid the 2015 payment in lieu of taxes payment totaling
$2,428,000
2. The City did not pay the General fund’s portion of hospitalization bills for the 3rd quarter of
2014 totaling $3,767,800.
A similar comment appeared in prior Report B44197.
The cash balance of any fund may not be reduced below zero. Routinely overdrawn funds could be
an indicator of serious financial problems which should be investigated by the governmental unit. (Accounting
and Uniform Compliance Guidelines Manual for Cities and Towns, Chapter 7)
Hardly anyone actually voted! Obviously the public doesn’t really care. This is the reason why people like the Mayor get by with these situations. Many just don’t takes the time to go out and vote. What was the % of potential voters in Evansville that actually took the trouble to go cast a vote in the last election? That is the problem. If only 20% of the registered voters actually go to the polls then it’s easy to see why the Mayor doesn’t care what the voters think about him. He or others will continue to screw the pooch as long as no one does anything. And even if we vote the current Mayor out the next one is just as likely to do the same things.
The people voted overwhelmingly for Winnecke, who tremendously outspent the Riecken campaign. In addition, her party was in disarray with leadership that is clearly not up to the job. Mrs. Riecken’s campaign was bush league and Winnecke’s was big league. It’s a shame this message didn’t get out like it should have, but I’m not sure she would have won even then. If the city survives until 2019, I think we will have a professionally run, high-dollar third campaign by Winnecke against another Democrat with less money to spend. I’m betting the next candidate will have a better organized party behind him/her, but who knows if Winnie can be beaten even after another three years of book juggling.
Maybe this should be required reading:
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, generally referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations, is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1776, the book offers one of the world’s first collected descriptions of what builds nations’ wealth, and is today a fundamental work in classical economics. By reflecting upon the economics at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the book touches upon such broad topics as the division of labour, productivity, and free markets.
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