IS IT TRUE March 18, 2013
IS IT TRUE the “2012 Cash and Investments Report” submitted by City of Evansville to State of Indiana Gateway reporting system reveals the following that the City of Evansville spent $26,592,367.48 MORE IN 2012 THAN IT TOOK IN?…we encourage our readership look below for a detail summary of City of Evansville’s 2012 account balances we find interesting:
LOCAL FUND NAMES Beginning Balances – Ending Balances
Parks and Recreation $3,299.230.97 – $1,059,881.68
PARKING $341,338.52 – $37,491.22
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT GRANT ($1,266,277.33) – ($48,594.67)
EMERGENCY SHELTER GRANT ($156,514.51) – ($157,899.19)
TIF REDEVELOPMENT BOARD $586,323.83 – $167,315.08
SIDEWALK PROGRAM $179,248.93 – $185,296.28
RIVERBOAT CAPITAL PROJECT $14,102,923.23 – $15,271,060.11
TOTAL MONIES $1,179.897.10 – $0.00
EVANSVILLE CIVIL CITY PAYROLL $656,174.95 – $183.16
OAKHILL PERPETUAL CARE $723,793.15 – $729,092.86
LOCUST HILL PERPETUAL CARE $129,132.09 – $131,545.51
ARENA 2010 ADDITIONAL PROJECTS $3,251,411.50 – $1,312,602.50
2007 SEWER REVOLVING RESERVE FUND $13,919.395.52 – $0.00
2012 TOTAL OPERATING ACCOUNT BALANCES $179,394,689.09 – $152,802,321.61
IS IT TRUE THE MOST DISTURBING FACT REVEALED IS THE FACT THAT THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE SPENT $26,592,367.48 MORE IN 2012 THAN IT TOOK IN!
IS IT TRUE this trend of deficit spending by depleting nearly every reserve account down is typical of governments today with the federal government being the worst offender?…the federal government spends roughly $1 Trillion more than it brings in which amounts to nearly a third of total spending?…that President Barack Obama is now posturing a $17 Trillion debt as sustainable?…if he is having to borrow money to pay the interest on that debt which he clearly is then he is deluding himself or just outright lying and hoping the American people are dumb enough to believe him regarding sustainable debt?…sustainable debt with flat revenue is only obtained when the annual spending equals the annual revenue?…there are times during rapid revenue growth that an expanding debt can be sustainable?…this is not such a time?
IS IT TRUE the over $26 Million in drawing down of reserves that the City of Evansville did last year amounts to about 12% of the City budget?…when looking at what the federal government has done this does not look so bad?…in reality since cities do not have the authority to print money it could have more immediate consequences?…that if it gets its spending in order before all of the reserves are squandered the City of Evansville has a chance to keep its recent bond ratings and use fee based revenue to repair the sewers as they should have been years ago?…that will take sufficient discipline to stop pissing away millions of dollars on fun and games like $10 Million dog & skateboard parks, the proposed Centennial Park, and borrowing money to subsidize a downtown Convention Hotel?…if the borrow and spend on temples to sport routine that was made into an art form by the Weinzapfel Administration is not arrested, a Detroit style takeover may just be in Evansville’s future?
The political thugs of Evansville have a recipe for disaster and are going to see it thru til the Cake for their Snegal efforts is baked and the resident´s goose is cooked. RUN!
Now, it’s see, Park & Rec fund down $2.2 million, and Mayor Winnecke wants to spend millions on the “Robert’s Park”??? How in the world would anyone think that this City can (1) afford the contraction of a new park, (2) maintain a new park…as one can see, where is the $2.2 million…and, where is the $5.2 million in the hospitalization fund…And, more importantly, where is the money coming from to replenish….of course, let’s not forget about the downtown motel 6 project…
To the editor….this article is very misleading….DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
How so? Enlighten us please. Arithmetic is not something that is prone to mistakes.
How much of the dollars that you are asking about were bond
proceeds from the prior year to be used for capital projects in 2012?
For example….the sewer funds and arena funds were dollars that were raised thru bonding in 2010 and 2011 to be expended for the projects that were completed in 2012. Did you get your figures from Mr. Garrett?
If you make $50,000 and buy a home for $150,000 do you view this as spending 100,000 more that you make or do you look at it as a capital investment that is amortized over a period of years? That’s how you should look at the sewer, arena and any other capital project that was funded in prior years, but not spent until 2012.
Our figures came directly from the State of Indiana’s Gateway website. Gateway got the numbers straight from the City of Evansville. David Garrett had nothing to do with it. We posted a link last week.
As for the Arena it is owned by the ERC and not the City of Evansville. The particular accounts that showed declining balances did not appear to be capital accounts by the names chosen for them by the city. The account names clearly indicate operational budget items.
The individual accounts were certaily interesting but the real negative surprise was the fact that the cumulative balances declined by over $26 Million in a year. Remember this was for 2012 which had no Arena construction and no other big infrastructure investments. The numbers jive pretty well with spending according to the approved budget but taking in lower than anticipated revenues.
We are open to publishing line by line explanations if such a thing is forthcoming.
By the way we all have jobs that we do. The CCO is a before hours and after hours endeavor. To tell us to “do our job” when over $100,000 worth of CPAs could not is asking quite allot of a sparsely paid and fully employed crew. What we try to do is shine as much light on a subject as we can with the hope that some of the people who are paid to be stewards of the public coffers will “do their job” and communicate to the public in a competent transparent way. That has not been getting done.
Now Hi Ho Hi Ho its off to work I go so if you post a response I will not see it for a while so don’t be offended if there is not an immediate response.
Mr. Gallagher…did Mr. Friend quiz Dan Hedden about the fact that he [Mr Hedden] fooled around with those utility funds at the beginning of the year, and the state board of account critized the administration for doing such a stupid thing, according to Friend’s response in the council meeting? Per the record, the state board wrote up the Administration on this event, per the filings on the SBOA’s website….
The comparison between City and Federal governments is always only going to be a bit incongruous because, as the Editor points out, the Feds can just print up more money when they need it and cause an inflation tax that hits everyone unequally. Not only that, but the system itself needs debt to survive. Debt is built into the system. It is the very thing that creates new money and keeps the whole, fake castle in the air buoyant.
All that said, it looks to me on the surface at least that City gov is sealing from most accounts to cover massive shortfalls in one: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT GRANT ($1,266,277.33) – ($48,594.67)
Perhaps there is some other explanation for why a shortfall of $1.266 million was reduced to $48k. Does the Editor conceive of another explanation for this?
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