Monday, March 24, 2008

Is Finkbeiner telling a mis-truth about the budget?

In his letter to Toledo City Council urging them to continue the $5.50 'refuse fee,' Mayor Carty Finkbeiner states that he's cut the budget by $22 million over the last two years.

Here are the general fund revenue totals from the budget:

01-GENERAL FUND Total

2004: $ 219,842,388.75 (actual)

2005: $ 226,769,645.36 (actual)

2006: $ 234,135,285.58 (actual)

2007: $ 246,724,857.26 (approved budget)

2008: $ 251,789,258.82 (submitted budget)

Simple math will show that the 2008 general fund revenue has increased $31,946,870.07 since 2004. That's a 14.5% increase.

General fund expense totals are:

2004: $ 223,939,034.71 (actual)

2005: $ 226,105,257.61 (actual)

2006: $ 234,312,215.50 (actual)

2007: $ 247,578,871.24 (approved budget)

2008: $ 251,789,258.82 (submitted budget)

This is a $27,850,224.11 increase - or 12.4% So where is the $22 million in cuts???

Note also, that in 2004, 2006 and 2007, they either spent or planned to spend more than they took in. No wonder the city is facing issues with our budget.

***The 2008 figures are from the published budget and they do not include the $1.1 million 'discovered' monies from unclaimed funds, nor the 2007 carry-over amount. They also don't include the additional expenses Finkbeiner had to budget for Toledo Municipal Court and their criminal justice needs.

5 comments:

navyvet said...

Hi Maggie,

The mayor's $22million in "cuts" over two years are at best a pseudo truth...even a lie in some circles.

He is never challenged and continues to get away with it. Hence the letters/memos etc.

We citizens should demand that his picture be taken while holding the daily local with Scout and the latest March madness results. For all we know, he is no longer emitting CO2...at least not in Toledo.

BTW, I heard nothing new at today's special council mtg. on garbage income. Ashford and Brown were AWOL. I left before the Q & A...did not see any smiling faces in the audience....a few folk had pit bull tendancies.

Tomorrow's Budget mtg. should be unique...not necessarily good for the taxpayers.

Tom

Maggie said...

thanks for the update, Tom.

And in case anyone is wondering, there are about 30 other funds in the budget besides the General Fund. In going through them, I didn't see $22 million in "cuts" but it's hard to say for sure because the federal and operational grants have zero information for both 2007 and 2008.

Timothy W Higgins said...

Maggie,

Why is it that city council, the keepers of all funding approval, seem incapable of seeint these numbers.

Is this simply a "new math" vs. "old math" debate, or have we switch to using chaos theory in adding up budget numbers.

Maggie said...

Tim - is that a rhetorical question???

(boy, I hope so!)

Robin said...

Maybe he's considering things that need to be done (like repairing the public pools and repaving streets) but have never been in reality in the budget as part of the "cuts".

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