It’s Time For City Council To Start Challenging The City Deficient Spending Practices
The political circus at City Council budget hearings for 2017 have 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 bills, advancement on future revenue and proposed tax increases they insist are “negligibleâ€.
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. Â 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. Â 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 over abundance 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.
Its time that Council make 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”?
The time to deal with these people was at the last election. We didn’t do it. Butterfly’s legacy is up on Mesker hill, Old Yeller’s is at whatever bar she last schlepped drinks at, or maybe the country club where she fits in so well.
Bring on the penguins @ 10+ million dollars. Perfect metaphor for the city administration and the council as it’s currently constituted. Nothing we can do about it.
My dear Bandana ..you are so correct!!! Like Obama said, “election have consequences” Old Yeller know how to steal elections. Who in the hell believes that she won her primary with only 14 vote? And now she thinks she fixes in at the Evansville C.C tabbing up her many drinks for the taxpayers to pay. She need to add another lawyer to aid old Josh, one with Municipal Bankruptcy experience!
I just can’t get past the Mayor’s insistence that having penguins at the zoo is a “quality of life” issue. Does someone in local government have a fetish involving penguins?
Maybe penguins would be appropriate if we had Sunday bus service, modern infrastructure, and reasonable water and sewage rates. Of course we would also have to have a balanced budget and surplus funds available to cover the costs before we could justify spending on penguins. If the zoo can’t get on a paying basis within the next three years, I think we should begin disposing of the animals and closing it down.
PEOPLE BEFORE PENGUINS!!!
Clarification: I am an animal lover. By “disposing of the animals” I mean selling or donating them to facilities where they will receive the best of care.
Once they get that outlandish $660,000 approved for ‘design work’ it will make it easier to get the astounding 10 million for the full blown waddle. Down the rabbit hole we go. The now gratuitous waste of money is very sad but becoming the norm. Until Famous Amos, or whoever, brought this up (or brought it up through Big Dollar Amos) I had never entertained the thought of Evansville needing a penguin exhibit. I’d venture to say nobody else had either.
Zoos have had their day, they are inhumane by definition and often beset by butterflies when in their death throes. They are now the province of rich people who can afford a private menagerie. That land would make a nice park or music venue in conjunction with the amphitheater.
During last year’s budget hearings, when the former Councilman Friend was proposing reductions in spending, Butterfly McGinn’s only response was “you are being political”. He even went further to say he would eliminate the Homestead Credit and increase the County Option Income Tax. Recently, not more than three months ago, did he or did he NOT say that the City finances are tiptop. Then why as of June 30, 2016, the General Fund balance is only $3.9 after Russ Lloyd, Jr swiped $12.5 from the advancement from Trop into the General Fund. Either Butterfly is inept together with Mosby & Weaver or political ..which is it???
How about they are both inept and political?
I can’t see a new penguin exhibit attracting many new visitors. Invest the $10 million in all parks to increase the quality of life for Evansville.
The Zoo has become a huge expense. Probably close to a $6 million budget with less than $2 million in revenue. A foundation should take over and stem the flow of red ink.
Mesker Park Zoo and Botanical Garden HAD a support organization (Friends of Mesker Park Zoo) and a Foundation. The “Friends” were paying for the animals food and training and education for the staff. The Foundation HAD a sizeable endowment. Mayor “Little Lloyd” found out about the endowment and wanted the funds added to the City’s General Fund account where he could control distribution of tbe assets. (“It will all be used for tbe Zoo.”) The Board of Directors of the FOMPZ (and the MPZ Foundation) didn’t trust “Little Lloyd”, or his flunky Butterfly, and refused to turn the endowment over to the City. “Little Lloyd” kicked the FOMPZ out of the Zoo. The FOMPZ turned the endowment funds over to a trust and to this day those funds are used to pay for education and training for the staff and keepers (the City will not pay for those expenses) and specifically requested capital projects. I suspect we’ll see the current City administration approach the MPZ Foundation Board to use the endowment to fund part of tbe penwuin exhibit.
*First, no public owned zoo, at any location, has ever been profitable. They always cost more than what they bring in directly (not including indirect income from monies spent by out of town visitors – food, shopping, hotel/motels).
*Second, a city the size of Evansville could not afford to build a zoo from the ground up (starting from scratch) today. They are a luxury.
*Third, the admission charge for Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden is ridiculously low. Look at the entrance fee for Indianapolis or Louisville or Cincinnati. And don’t use the St. Louis Zoo as a comparison; it’s “free” but it’s funded by a multi-county millage tax and they charge for parking.
And last, Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden should be removed from the oversight and control of tbe Evansville Parks and Recreation Department and City Council and set up as a separately funded (tax base) and administered (Board of Directors) facility similar in nature to the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library system.
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