Rather than take a 3.5 hour meeting into 4 hours, I have opted to release a statement regarding my vote on the 2013 budget. I voted against the 2013 budget for the following reasons:
1. The 2013 budget proposed by the Administration is financially irresponsible and short-sighted. With less money next year from Aztar, the need to find $10 million dollars for a downtown hotel, and only $3 million in the rainy day fund, a $3 to $5 million dollar cushion between revenue and expenditures is not enough. The Ford Center and Centre are operating at losses and the downtown TIF and food and beverage tax revenues are not producing enough money to cover the loans we took out to build them. We are having to use Aztar funds, which are normally used for capital projects such as police cars, to make up the difference. It’s difficult to imagine how we are going to borrow an additional $10 million next year to incentivize the building of the downtown hotel. With the Centre not being paid off until 2015, this bloated budget will most likely stall hotel construction until 2015 or later. The local economy needs the hotel project. If we could have saved $10 million in the 2013 budget, we could be building the downtown hotel next year without borrowing any money. Money for Keep Evansville Beautiful, Leadership Evansville and other unnecessary expenditures such as increasing the flower budget for the Parks Department have led to a budget that reads more like a child’s Christmas wish list.
2. What was believed to be the final budget was not emailed to City Council until October 19th, however it was adjusted yet again when we arrived to vote. The budget is approximately 200 pages long and somewhat incomprehensible. It is full of abbreviations that are nonsensical and has literally hundreds of thousands of dollars buried in categories labeled “contractual services” and “miscellaneous.” It is not in a format that is user friendly, and it is nearly impossible to decipher. It is unacceptable that the final budget is not provided in a user friendly format with enough time to actually go through it. The entire schedule for reviewing and voting on the budget should be started much earlier so that City Council is not essentially forced to vote a mere days before the deadline.
3. The budget contains nearly $1 million dollars for the destruction of Roberts Stadium. Three years ago, Roberts Stadium was a profitable venue for the City. However, it was systematically attacked and the public misled as to its condition. A refusal to maintenance the building, a financing agreement for the Ford Center that required the removal of all of its seating, and an auction that sold the fixtures for pennies on the dollar has forced the destruction of a landmark in this community. City Council was misled at its last meeting as to the cost to mothball the building. We were told that it was $25 to $30 thousand dollars a month to maintain the building. The records revealed otherwise. In its most expensive month last year (January), water, telephone, pump monitoring, gas and electric was approximately $14 thousand. An average cost to mothball the stadium would be approximately $10 thousand a month. We are destroying a perfectly good building, that is paid for, due to a complete lack of creativity.
4. As of the time of the vote on the 2013 budget, the major accounts of the City were not reconciled. Although it is doubtful that reconciliation would create major changes in balances, it is irresponsible to vote for a budget without certainty as to the funds.
5. The 2013 budget contains unreasonable raises for a select few employees.
6. The Fire Fighters are still in negotiations for a contract. It is not appropriate to vote on a budget where the end result of the negotiations, and therefore the final cost, is not known.
I am available for questions at 812-499-3384
Stephanie Brinkerhoff Riley
Well said, thanks
Good job———————-keep it up
Thank You for being one of the few resposible city council members.
I wish all of the council members chose to use their brain and common sense like you.
Agreed! Thank you for having common sense in this matter, ever think about running for mayor?
JMHO
The one person on the city council who has my respect. She should keep the next run for mayor in mind. Everything she states in why she did not approve the 2013 budget makes perfectly good sense.
WOW!! She makes this citizen fervently wish that we had a few moke like her in our city government. Thank you very, very much Stephanie
*more
SBR, Please keep up your good work and responsible voting. Also kudos to Doc Adams and Al Lindsey for voting against this financial mess.
Concerning ” Leadership Evansville” if the local COC wants to run a reeducation camp let them pay for it out of their own budget.
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Thank you, Ma’am.
This was a good decision. The Council upon which you sit has the authority and the DUTY to say ‘no’ when it’s appropriate. This is clearly one of those times and one of those Administrations where the proverbial shoe fits.
Good for you!
Adams, Lindsay and Binkerhoff-Riley just made it clear which of our Council deserve to be there and which perhaps should update their resumes.
“We are destroying a perfectly good building, that is paid for, due to a complete lack of creativity.”
I have to say on this point, Ma’am, you are wrong. That building is being destroyed because doing anything with it besides selling it allows the Administration to spend more of the people’s money. I believe you are among the Option B people advocating for some other use under City direction, at least your past statements have pointed that direction. I believe that thinking is in the long run just as disastrous as the thinking put forward by the Option A (demolition) crowd represented by the Administration.
My question to you is this: have you ever seriously considered all the potential benefits of Option C (auctioning Roberts Stadium)? If not, why not? If so, why have you remained in the Option B camp despite its obvious shortcomings?
Any plan that would get more city owned property into private, re. taxpayer, hands would be most welcome.
Just go to the Assessor’s website and search on the City of Evansville. The Housing Authority of the City of Evansville would be a good place to start.
There should be a concerted effort made to get as much city property as is possible back into private hands. They might even try selling some of their facilities if they can sign suitable leases.
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Madam-again, you shine.
Thank you for your no vote!
You have expressed far more succinctly and more cogently what I said on Monday night. I thank you.
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