The budget is done, questions from Council members are still strongly discouraged
It's official. The budget is done. The vote will happen on Thursday, but I don't expect any further changes. And since so many numbers have been moving around in the past two nights, I offer you this spreadsheet from the Town Manager:
The Democratic Budget Chairman, Michael Ecke, and GOP Budget member, Tom Ruocco, have two proposals that will be presented on Thursday night. If I recall correctly, the main differences are:
1) Ruocco cuts an additional $130,000 in general government spending in the "salary adjustment" line. Salary adjustments are the raises that people would get next year. Of course, the raises given to some people may not matter that much since The Democratic Rubber Stamp Council was dishing out raises of 5% to 7% only a few months ago. And that was at a moment in time that was definitely after we knew the recession was here and the bailouts had started. FWIW, I don't know the recipients of the raises - nor do I want to know. But I'm guessing those raises were given to members of The Inner Circle.
2) Ruocco cuts an additional $300,000 from the school budget.
3) Ruocco adds $16,000 to open the transfer station on two Saturdays with the purpose of allowing residents to dump their bulky waste. The trash disposal trucks will cost $8,000 / day.
So there you have it. Two budgets - one with an additional spending reduction of $400,000 or so and a reinstatement of bulky waste disposal (though not collection).
As for whatever happened to those two dozen take home vehicles, the travel all over North America, the pool and all the other questionable spending... well... The Democratic Rubber Stamp Council has clearly demonstrated that questions from Council are still strongly discouraged. And if a Council member unwisely insists on asking questions / making suggestions, s/he should expect to be scolded by staff for insubordination.
And so everyone knows, at tonight's meeting I didn't bother asking for an apology for last night's outburst. There's no point. We all know who is in charge of this Council:
Tim White
p.s. With regard to yesterday's post, the $91,000 reduction in the police budget was not real. Though you can see the $91k in the above spreadsheet, it included a $60,000 typo. So that "reduction" is not real.
12 comments:
The Free Spending Five were giving our 5% to 7% raises AFTER Bear Stearns tanked?
Hello! Anybody in there?
Right now my state union is going to be giving back hundreds of millions and my wife is going to see her nursing license fee double.
Are these guys living in some alternative reality where the depression didn;t occur?
Hey, what's wrong with a little self-help *bailout* for us and our friends?
We've got ours. The rest of you should just stop whining about "those two dozen take home vehicles, the travel all over North America, the pool, and all the other questionable spending."
After five years on the Council I see that Cheshire has its own Political Class.
There are several people who sit behind the dais who seem to truly believe that your tax dollars belong to them... and those dollars are to be spent as they see fit without input from anyone who is not a member of Cheshire's Political Class.
Oh, what messages and lessons our teachers are giving our students.
When the going gets tough, get what you can, as much as you can and whenever you can.
Sharing is good when someone is giving you a share.
If you see something wrong, don't help, don't get involved, keep your distance and keep your mouth shut and speak only when your told to.
Don't do anything without being paid.
Don't say anything without authorization.
Obey your boss and most of all the union.
If you see something wrong, don't help, don't get involved, keep your distance and keep your mouth shut and speak only when your told to.
Don't do anything without being paid.
Don't say anything without authorization.
Obey your boss and most of all the union.
You forgot to include sit behind a computer and whine about other people.
"You forgot to include sit behind a computer and whine about other people"
Is there an Acceptable Use Policy for Town government computers that lets employees post stuff on blogs in the middle of the work day?
It will be interesting to see how the Boe actually adjusts their budget when they get a bottom line number..or should I say how the Super will tell them how to adjust it.
The Super's budget included eliminating 5 teacher positions and 10 support positions.
The Boe reduced the Super's budget by 1.1 million and they voted on it to take 850K more out of the salary account.
It wouldn't surprise me if with retirements and some creative accounting, that no teachers will be laid off (even though enrollment is way down).
So the teachers win again and the taxpayers will loose again.
Thanks for nothing TC majority!!
Maybe they should have had a line item for High School Security guards and more camera's. Although kids smoked cigarettes in the bathroom and left school during the day to go to dunkin donuts, etc whe i went to school (class of 1993) the situation there seems out of control. Kids have smoked pot and drank since the beginning of modern time (1960's) but the cocaine, ectasy, herion, etc use is unbelievable. I heard that a kid was assualted this afternoon in the hallway in the high school. It was so damaging that he was put on a life star helicopter with a broken femur and hip among internal bleeding. Where are the teachers, aides, principals, and staff. In a building with over 1400 people in at any given time, no one could have heard this? Imagine if this happened in your workplace. Someone would have found out. The kid who did this is going to be in big trouble. I heard it was a cops kid who was beat up. They should start with the top and tea party the whole bunch of teacher and adminstators out. The problem with eliminating teachers positions is the newer / fresher teachers get eliminated. These are generally eager and more apt to help students. The old guard remains and continues to work towards te grave. enough is enough. Stand up Cheshire ciizens and revolt. Our time has come to challange the "new" guard and take back our town like it was before the yuppies can riding in like Paul Revere. If you agree with me, last hold a meeting Friday AM at one stop at 7:00 AM. A informal town hall meeting.
Can't wait til November 3.
"Change we need"...in Cheshire.
Since they made it clear that the public would not be allowed to speak at the meeting tomorrow, will the meeting be televised? I won't waste my time going to it (again)but want to see the dem majority as they cave in to the teachers.
Ecke said in the RJ that "the public was heard loud and clear." Is he kidding?? The meeting was stacked with teachers who don't give a crap about the kids and just want their raises - they don't even live in town!! Then there were some parents who admitted they only moved here for the education - so obviously they don't care about much of anything else and will be outta here leaving us all with huge tax bills!
Then to top it off the dem majority wants to cancel the bulky waste program (which has already been cut in the last few years). So if you want to get rid of those big items you'll have to pay someone to haul them away, or you might want to drop them off at Ecke's house.
What a joke this council is.
I loved reading the comments from the public from the April 2 meeting.
There are people who feel itis "only $153" so we can do away with our "cappaccino or frappacino". Do they really think that all of us are that well off?
What happens next year, it's only $153, then the next year, it's only $200, and so on...when will it end?
How does Ecke wait until the end of the meeting to say that that $153 may not be accurate? Then he drops the bomb, those with the smaller homes will be affected the most and have the larger increase...
How come he didn't disclose that info before all the blowhards spoke??
Has he ever answered the question of is he a CPA or not??????
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