In Response To Mayor Winnecke’s Request To Borrow $8 Million Dollars
Mayor Winnecke “Saying the city is strong financially and then ‘borrowing’ $8 million dollars from the Rainey Day and Riverboat funds to pay bills is a direct contradiction”.
It would be one thing if it were due to a cash flow issue as stated by the administration.  But you have to question how it can be considered ‘borrowed’.  The mayor can’t pay salaries and bills now, he’ll need all the tax money he gets in November and more to pay expenses till the next tax payment in June, 2016, so how is he going to pay it back?
The city is going to go broke if we don’t change directions. Make no mistake: the Mayor is not going to change direction, he says we don’t have a financial problem.â€
Gail Riecken is running for Mayor of Evansville and is a former Evansville City Council-woman, Evansville Parks Director, and a current member of the Indiana State House of Representatives. She is a lifelong Evansville resident, has been married for 47 years, and has 2 children and 3 grandchildren.
Gail Riecken offers a short and simple answer to the high-flown gibberish spewed by our current Mayor concerning the City’s financial mess. Bravo, Gail!!!
And your solution is, Gail? Which big ticket item are you willing to cancel in order to reduce spending? Or is your solution to raise taxes?
Remember, in the future these Riverboat funds are designated for bond repayment for the massive capital spending now taking place.
@commonsense: I took this to mean that Gail is exposing Winnecke’s hypocrisy: ” the finances are in great shape; may I borrow $ 8 Million ?”. Yes, we have no bananas.
Right, Tim. She did just that. Question is, what will she do differently to put the finances in order.
She has said many times her administration would institute GAAP accounting procedures. If you look at ther web site she goes into some detail There is a section called ‘Let’s Fix The City’s Finances’ that addresses your question. She has previously said she wouldn’t have proceeded on the hotel like Winnecke did. I believe she could have attracted a legitimate developer rather than that guy from Branson who is going to put up a cut rate embarrassment. She has answered financial questions about as well as anyone could without knowing what the landscape will look like once she gets into office. It will likely not be within her power to kill either of the big projects pending even if she wanted to. Progress is good but it must be done with respect to existing money constraints. Winnecke has ignored the suspect financial condition of the city and done what mayors like to do, build. Big projects leave a lot of room for graft.
I do not think you can let yourself vote for Gail Riecken no matter what she says or does. You should re-evaluate your position. Winnecke is running on a defacto ticket with would-be council members who have already said they’d stamp whatever he wants. We cannot afford him or his motley crew.
http://s26.postimg.org/6cje96mex/Ticket.jpg
Health care coverage for all non-full time employees should be done away with. Let them get health care on their own like the rest of the population. Now that the ACA is the law of the land, affordable care is readily available and taking that line item out of the budget should save the tax payers quite a bit.
Another topic that I often wonder about was how did we survive prior to the casino coming into existence? I am too young to remember where the revenue came from for running the city before the sacred cash cow on the river was established…
Great points, JPL.
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