Over the last several years we have been warning our readers that the city employee Healthcare funds are almost depleted because of the out of control spending practices of City Council and Mayor Winnecke.
On Monday City Council drew down $2.2 million dollars to pay towards $7.3 million dollars of city employees Healthcare debt as of November 30, 2016.
It looks like the City Council may be back to its old ways of doing business when 1st Ward Councilman and Finance Chairman Dan McGinn (R) requested that Council “suspend the rules” so they could grant approval of a $2.2 Â million dollars advancement to reduce the negative balance owed to the city employee heath care bills for this year.
Earlier this year 1st Ward Councilman and Finance Chairman Dan McGinn, proposed to reduce our Homestead Tax Credit by 2% and claimed it would only would cost about $16 per household.  McGinn claimed if Council didn’t approve his request the City would be faced with the prospect of laying off firemen and policemen down the road.  Council President Missy Mosby and Vice President Jonathan Weaver also agreed with McGinn’s “political spin’ by saying this needs to be done in order keep our first responders Employee Healthcare premiums intact without raising their insurance rates and premiums this coming year.  All we can say to McGinn, Mosby and Weaver is “how did that work out”?
It’s important to point out that holding our first responders benefits package hostage has always been a favorite political trick of our current spend-thrift City Council and Mayor from the day they took office.
During the last election City Council candidates made promises to the voters that they would be transparent and accountable. Â These promises have been broken many times since they have taken office. Â It looks like its up to us to force the Mayor and his puppet Council members to be more transparent and accountable.
We were convinced we were electing a vigilant group of new comers that would keep us informed about every governmental issue that effects us.  So far that doesn’t seem to be the fact.  During the last election all we heard from them were they are going to be a “The Taxpayers Watchdogs.” They’re now turning out to be the Mayors and City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr. “lap Dogs.” Â
For well over two years we have been telling our readers that the City of Evansville finances are not in the best of shape regardless of what Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr and a few City Council members have been telling us . We now predict that in 2017 the City of Evansville will be facing one of the biggest budget crisis in many years. In fact 2017 shall prove to be the biggest “Snegal” year ever.
Its now time for the taxpayers of this community to a put a stop to some of the useless capital projects that provide lucrative contracts to political donors of the Mayor and select City Council members. Â Henceforth, its up to us to see that they do the right things in spite of themselves. It’s time for us to see that our basic services don’t suffer anymore because of the adding of pointless feel good and political patronage projects..
We hope to see you at a future City Council meeting speaking your mind or standing in front of the Civic Center participating in a peaceful protest against the out of control spending habits of our City Council.
Bottom line, our elected officials created this mess and now its time for us to force them to clean it up!
How do you “force them to clean it up” when you keep re-electing them despite what they do? An overwhelming number of voters have no idea how bad the city financial situation is and until there is a collapse, you are roaring into the wind. Complacency by the electorate is always the basis of government malfeasance in the USA.
That is exactly right. I’d add willful ignorance to complacency. Either is bad enough and cover plenty of voters but the two together are hard to overcome.
Many voters have an impermeable filter that allows only what they want to hear through, add that to those who just don’t care and you get a council like we have. You also get rampant untruthfulness and financial machinations by city ‘leaders’ that eventually does real damage.
I’m almost to the point of considering Evansville’s future as a lost cause. With the growth in northern Vanderburgh county and Warrick county on the other side of I-69, the migration from E’ville will continue unabated. Darmstadt could well become the population center as the middleclass and affluent flee the city corruption with their wealth.
The state will not allow E’ville to expand it’s boundaries with the federal mandates and financial shortfalls that don’t allow it to provide adequate services now. Indy could care less as it has all the Republicans it needs to control the states future development. Anyone who seriously thinks Winnecke or Weinzapfel has a political future outside the city limits are kidding themselves.
The ghost of Rick Davis will haunt the city for decades to come.
The two prime forces that act to keep Evansville’s finances in a constant state of peril are the Evansville Redevelopment Commission and the Department of Metropolitan Development. If you want to “clean things up”, focus like a laser on these two entities. It is obvious that the local newspaper will never do it, so YOU must take the initiative to understand how hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars pass through the Evansville Redevelopment Commission, often with the taxpayers knowing nothing about it until the ink is dried on the contracts, and often with the taxpayers not ever knowing who the local businessmen associated with these projects are/were.
Anyone know why Mr. Weaver was roused from his seat the the UE bball game by an EPD officer and taken to the concourse for 10 min of questioning? It happened on Tues night. Just curious.
BTW…he was seated next to Ms. Mosby.
With the Weasel, one’s imagination can only run wild ..
IS IT TRUE that this may be the answer to your question of the removal of Councilman Weaver from his seat at the Ford Center ..that one of his estranged ex-wifes has a restraining order against him and she apparently works at the Ford Center. Consequently, his presents there violated the order. We hear that this is a developing story. Stay tuned ..
Wow ..what if she obtained employment in the Civic Center would that mean Weaver would not be able to attend City Council meetings????
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