CITY OF EVANSVILLE POLITICAL GAMES CONTINUES

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MAYOR
MAYOR

ATTACHED  below is an e-mail sent to the elite mainstream media and City Council members concerning the alleged Ramifications of Passing 2016 City of Evansville Salary Ordinance Without Passing a 2016 Budget to Fund Next Year Appropriations.  For the last 3 years the Mayors Minister of Propaganda stopped sending the City County Observer news releases or e-mail because we question the contents of articles we felt that the information was mis-leading.  We relay on our strong net worth of individuals who believe that our elected officials should practice ‘Good Public Policy”.

MEMORANDUM

To: Mayor Lloyd Winnecke

From: Russell Lloyd Jr. CPA, Controller Marco DeLucio, Assistant City Attorney

Nick Cirignano, Assistant City Attorney Date: October 14, 2015

Subject: Ramifications of Passing 2016 City of Evansville Salary Ordinance Without Passing a 2016 Budget to Fund Next Year Appropriations

Dear Mayor:

We have spoken with, and gathered information from, Dan Jones CPA, Assistant Budget Director, IN Dept. Local Government Finance (DLGF) and Susan Gordon CPA, Assistant Director Cities Towns and Libraries, IN State Board of Accounts (SBOA). We also reviewed and internally discussed Indiana statutes relating to the budget process.

The key points to consider if the 2016 budget is not passed by the City Council by Nov. 2 include:

  1. The City Property Tax Levy Will Be Frozen at the 2015 Level – The state allowed growth quotient for 2016 is 2.60%. If City Council does not pass the budget, the City tax levy will be frozen at the 2015 level.(General Fund cost is $1.5 mil., Parks Fund cost is $221k). Note: This money would be gone forever, it can never be “caught up.”
  2. The City of Evansville 2016 Salary Ordinance is a Ceiling That Won’t Be Funded – The 1% pay raises have been approved by City Council; however, if a budget is not passed which includes the 1% pay raise, there will be no appropriation for the 1% pay increase since the 2015 budget will remain in place pursuant to Indiana law (the 2015 budget does not include a 1% increase for 2016). As such, unless a budget is passed by City Council which includes a 1% pay increase, there will be no increase for any City employees in 2016 (including EPD and Fire Department personnel).

This will result in a

reduction of approximately $1.7 Million in property tax revenue for 2016

  1. The 2016 Budget Adoption Meeting is Moved Back To Oct. 26 at 5:10PM – Because the budget was not approved by the Finance Committee, the Finance Chair continued the 2016 budget hearing until the next City Council meeting on October 26. The 2016 budget adoption has to be advertised to the public via the Indiana State GATEWAY system and public notices 48 hours prior to the meeting. A new Form 4 Ordinance for Appropriations and Tax Rates with the new date will be prepared.
  2. The2016BudgetOrdinanceDidNotPassOutoftheFinanceCommittee.– The 2016 budget remains with the City Council Finance Committee for approval but procedurally its status is unclear. In an abundance of caution, a new ordinance number for the 2016 budget has been assigned and properly advertised. The 2016 budget ordinance will be considered on October 26. For all three readings of the ordinance to be considerd at the meeting unanimous approval is needed by City Council, otherwise a special meeting will be necessary. A new Form 4 for the the same 2016 budget adoption will be presented to City Council.
  3. If the 2016 Budget is Not Approved Debt Payments Not Budgeted by the City Can be Petitioned to the DLGF for Payment – The DLGF takes care to process debt payments so if debt payments are not budgeted they can still be paid. A petition can be submitted to the DLGF requesting the transfer of other operating funds.

To summarize, Indiana law allows for the unusual circumstance where the fiscal body does not approve a budget for the ensuing year. Basically, the law states that the prior year budget will be used. One serious problem with this situation is that any growth in property taxes for the unit cannot be captured as the tax levy is “frozen” at the prior year level and those funds cannot be recaptured at a later date and will be lost forever. The difficulty of operating on prior year expenditures can be somewhat mitigated by appropriation transfers, but the total budget cannot exceed the prior year levels.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

19 COMMENTS

  1. City Council: PLEASE do not pass the budget, and therefore prevent these thugs from taking another $ 1.7 Million in property taxes from the Citizens !

    Thank you Mayor for carefully researching this dollars-saving idea for the Citizens !

  2. The Council’s reticence in passing a budget is understandable. Winnecke and his handlers have shown themselves to be untrustworthy and wasteful with public money. The council should not forget that the little guy sued them earlier when he didn’t get his way and is deserving of no favors. Cut some of the administration’s patronage jobs as a gesture of good faith, those folks won’t be missed a bit.

    • Bandana,
      Do you support the Winnecke and City Council idea to raise local taxes by 25%? (from 1% to 1.25%)?
      Shouldn’t Gail Riecken should attack the Mayor and his Council supporters
      for proposing to raise local taxes after the election?

      • Bandana,
        Maybe you know something about the next term Mayor’s plans to raise local taxes the rest of us
        don’t know…and you don’t want to talk about it.

        • McGinn and Missy were both on the record as being in favor of the tax increase at the last Council meeting

  4. Last years Budget is working today, right? Might be a good year to reassess real priorities and bad decisions like funding the Brownfields to mow grass around Haney’s corner and interfere with private enterprise to the tune of $700,000.

    • I would hesitate to say it is “working,” but we clearly don’t need to plan on any more revenue next year than we had this year. Not increasing the tax rate seems to be a good idea. We may not drive so many people out of the city if we don’t tax them to death.

      • Laura:

        They are going to receive more revenue even if the levy remains “frozen” because it is based on a certain percent of every hundred dollars of assessment value. Assessments have gone up significantly, ask around if you did not receive an increase yourself.

    • if by “working” you mean borrowing from our rainy day fund to make a payroll, then Yes! It’s working!

  6. Owing to the fact that the Vanderburgh County Assessor’s Office has raised the assessment on so many properties, I see nothing wrong with “the city property tax levy being frozen at the 2015 level”. The city will still receive a substantial INCREASE in property tax revenue without raising the levy!

  7. is this why i just got a tax assessment notice raising the land portion of my assessment exactly 200%? this raises my total assessment 39% or an additional FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS?

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