dec Council Meeting Tonight - Budget season begins!!! pdf
by matthew on Mon Nov 30 15:00:28 CST 2009
Obviously the past few months I’ve been really busy, and I’m still don’t have a lot of time to write as much as I’d like…So forgive my brevity…
We’re going to the council meeting tonight, and I’ve watched the current council now long enough to get a bit of a feel of predicting the council’s reactions…Looks like a pretty mundane council agenda for the regular meeting. The study session has potential, though.

Sounds like the the Pines deal is going to go though – yippiee!!  Now if they'll only improve the safety of the five-points intersection, I'll be really happy! 

Ok – now on to the study session – and the discussion on the tax levy:
 
 I expect the star of the show to be Adam Brown with lots of talk about “holding the line on taxes” and “When I visited 500,000 people during the campaign..they all told me they don’t like the government in their pocketbooks”…At which point I hope someone reminds the councilman he’s elected to a 4 year term, and at least for a year he should trade campaigning and populism with responsible governance. Beyond that, I don’t expect much posturing….

Also, I think the stock “we’ve got hard decisions ahead of us” will he heard from all 7 members, of course -  Beyond that, I doubt there will be much in the way of concrete proposals or contributions from the council...

Appearance of Citizens has been pretty tame lately...There's always the possiblilty of someting coming out of left field at that point....


That's all for now!
by tampasis on Tue Dec 01 11:16:53 CST 2009
Well here we go again another way to NOT bring business to Decatur raise the tax to 7% heres my thought on it DROP some of the free services reduce the city's expense try to really balance the budget. For the the last 39 years i've been in decatur i've seen the city mismanaged over and over and in a time of recession as we are in now with 11% unempolyment  rasing the taxes 7% is just plain DUMB you on the city counsel were hired as leaders ACT LIKE IT be responsible to all citizens of Decatur.
by matthew on Tue Dec 01 15:20:29 CST 2009
Well, it went pretty much as expected. 
The oddity for the meeting was the council – against counsel’s suggestion – voted to extend what I believe amounts to a no-bid contract to Homer Chastian and Associates for some lake work. Councilman Pat Laegeler was the sole “no” vote, and I think the only council member that had the remotest clue what the voting amounted to.  
 
In the study session, Adam Brown faithfully used the phrase “Hold the line on taxes” (wow – couldn’t see that one coming!), and with a straight face suggested that he thought the council members should lead by example and take a 6.5% pay cut. Let’s see – 6.5% of $4000/year is…Wow! Brown’s willing to sacrifice $240 a year for the city! I would like to suggest that if Farmer Brown would really care to contribute to “deficit reduction” he could convince his family to embrace the competitive open-market, and refuse the hundreds of thousands of dollars in Farm subsidies (that’s our tax money) they’ve received Here’s a link! … No doubt Adam can afford missing out on $240 a year when the feds are pumping tens-of-thousands a year into his family’s coffers (he “works” for the family farm). 
 
Give me a break!!!
 
The only thing that rivaled him was hearing from John Phillips. It’s really hard to hear a man who personally wrote tens of thousands of dollars worth of checks to his wife’s campaign tell me how we common folk feel about taxes and municipal services. As often as we are at odds, I still tend to like the guy. I think he and his wife contribute to the community is great and various ways, but come on! At one point he suggested that we may not “like” all the revenue sources we tap, but we should basically grin and bear it…Specifically, I think he was floating (pardon the pun) the notion of bringing a riverboat gambling operation to Lake Decatur. Going down that line of thinking, I about half expected him to end with a suggestion we establish an Amsterdam, Holland style red-light district so we could cover all the sin-based-revenue-streams…
 
Moving along!
 
The thing to remember is the city is responsible for somewhere in the neighborhood of 17% the total property tax burden. Considering Fire and Police are wrapped in to the figure, I don’t think it’s unreasonable.
My concern is simply cutting bodies will not automatically reduce costs. Remember the position we were in just a year or so ago with Police overtime costing more than over hiring, then covering the schedule with non-overtime officers. Also, I’m sure the CM is considering this, but natural attrition will tend to reduce the “per-employee-average-cost” as the older, more highly paid workers retire, and younger, less experienced ones take their place.  There are complications here, though, as the city has to meet its obligation to the IMRF (Retirement fund)…And it’s a pretty big chunk of change all by itself!
I talked very briefly to a few of the AFSCME union guys after the meeting. I came away with the impression they’re willing to work with the city to optimize the return-on-investment from their side. My wife noted, we’ve missed Fire Union representative Adam Ruderman since the election. Anyone know the fire union’s position in all this?
 
So here’s the question: Are municipal taxes as an investment in the infrastructure of the community, or not? If they are, while we may not like paying them, we know it’s worth it. If they’re not; then why?
Here’s where I’m at right now (no surprises!):
                I think, by and large, municipal and county taxes are efficiently administered, and a well documented, prudent increase is probably necessary to insure the long-term health of the city. Absolutely times are tough, but the last thing we should do as a community is reduce service. We should optimize existing processes (and if that reduces/shuffles positions, then great!), invest in infrastructure and long-term projects that will grow this community in the coming decades. 
 
I also think there’s more to it than the City of Decatur…As taxpayers, I think now is the perfect time to press forward with consolidation of services into “metropolitan” units…(as suggested so often by Sue Barnhart). Should the Decatur Park District really be a separate unit of government? And – I’m asking for it, I know – but exactly how cost-effective-and-taxpayer-friendly are our townships and school district? 
 
So there you go! Man! It feels good to post again!!!!
 
What do you all think?
by matthew on Wed Dec 02 08:30:10 CST 2009
I see the trolls are still here. Comments removed - cry me a river here, or post it in the speaker's corner thread - where I'll summerize their comments later today... Now,any on-topic comments?
by Sue on Thu Dec 03 22:40:56 CST 2009
you know me - I think park district should be combined with city.  Nothing against the park district - I just think the park district is here for the good of the city so why separate it.   Goals need to match. 

And I think we need to be become "metropoltian" so far as the rest -  Decatur citzens pay for ALL that keeps the rest of the county going - without our roads without our water without our railroad tracks our industry the surrounding county is nada.  If its all for one and one for all - then let it be that - but the way it currently is is Decatur pays for all and those who don't want to help with our problems move to surround communities and ignore our problems all the while benefiting from our tax dollars and our consumer spending and our lower cost workers who man the resturants and stores of the surrounding communities.

Where is our money going Matthew?  I know you study the budget stuff.   I agree with the importance of low taxes for growth but I also know excellent city services count - big time - when it comes to growth and image.

Sue
by Sue on Thu Dec 03 22:54:47 CST 2009

Oh - and I forgot to say - you don't get excellent services for nothing.  And when much of our  city core is vacant - well - you pay more per person.  We still have the same amount of acreage, roads, sewage lines, water lines - infrastructure to support even with the population decline probably more cause we have expanded our boundaries.  Unless we can lure people back it wil cost more per person the way I see it.

by haydiz on Fri Dec 04 08:22:11 CST 2009
The problem is:  how do we pull people back into the community if our property taxes are so much higher than nearby smaller communities?  I completely understand the situation and more than likely we'll have a tax increase but at some point it has to end.  We can only put so much burden upon our residents and businesses until they just pack up and leave.   So some services and jobs are going to have to be cut.  There's no way around it.  I would like to see a county-wide solution but that's highly unlikely.

We may eventually move out of Decatur, not because of taxes (unless they get ridiculous), but because my husband's business needs more land space.  The neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate dump trucks and trailers all over the place.  But if there's property within Decatur's limits with the acreage we need vs. a property outside with lower property taxes - it would be a no-brainer which one we'd choose.


by Doug on Fri Dec 04 13:48:36 CST 2009
http://www.herald-review.com/news/local/892ae2ee-8eda-5073-9b99-cb359fef46c0.html




Kris there is 5 acres 500 yards from your house that was for sale I don't know if it sold or not but it looked nice.  The property is right next to the Empty lot Wiley has for sale.
by haydiz on Fri Dec 04 14:32:44 CST 2009
Doug, Rick has been drooling over that property for the past couple years.  I've been hearing about it forever!  lol  It would be perfect for us.  It has a big shed for all his stuff and plenty of room to park things.  I'd hate to see what the property taxes would be though.  EEK!  I don't think it ever sold.  We could probably find cheaper land and property taxes in a rural area but I don't want to live in the boondocks.  I like the neighborhood, being in the city or at least near it.   There are homes off Westlawn that are outside Decatur's city limits near Home Park that have bigger lots.  We're keeping our eyes open.  I also want enough land to have a horse.  Don't know the first thing how to care for them but I want one.  ;-)

I saw that article on the H&R.  Interesting development.

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