Buffington responds to LIBA’s Beutler endorsement
Tammy Buffington
The LIBA PAC is not the whole LIBA organization. While I am disappointed that they endorsed my opponent, I am not surprised. This is the opinion of a few individuals, not the whole organization. I firmly believe that through this campaign as I meet with small business owners and the majority of the LIBA members as well as more Lincoln citizens, I will show them the distinction between a career politician who only knows how to tax and spend and a small business owner that has concerns for Lincoln’s city debt.
One of my first actions will be to audit every department for efficiency and track where all the money is going. The incumbent mayor has led this city from a $1 million city debt to a $6.2 million debt in four years. Do we really want more of the same for 4 more years?
Let’s be reminded of LIBA’s mission statement of supporting candidates who promote fiscal responsibility and free enterprise, not a larger and more imposing government. As the people’s candidate, I’m out to prove myself to the people of Lincoln that I am the best choice for Mayor of Lincoln.
Winterized 
“audit every department for efficiency”
Should she win the election, she – or her delegate – would somehow identify efficiencies that the department heads and experienced staff have somehow overlooked these past years. And when done, the Efficiency Auditor’s report would be the “opinion of a few individuals, not the whole organization.”
Is this simplistic view of city government due to ignorance or does she really think it’s that easy being Mayor? Does she really think the various departments are that pathetic at their job? Here’s a tip for the would-be Mayor: take a look at David Cameron’s Big Society (google it); you’ll need a similar civic distraction after efficiently slashing the department budgets.
If Tammy is to be taken seriously (which she isn’t if LIBA isn’t backing her) Tammy needs to be specific. It’s easy to say I’m going to cut “spending” or “waste”, why can’t she say “I’m going to close South Street Library and close 2 pools.” The entire city budget down to the penny is online or available, why can’t Tammy get real and tell us where the cuts are coming from. Deena Winter, to her credit, has at least offered some tangible proposals.
Matthew and John, audits, you make fun of audits. It’s your ignorance that is amazing to me. Tell the people that Foley is auditing and scaring the heck out of. You don’t think there is mis-management in government departments? Tell you what guys, I will sell you the Nebraska Football stadium for a couple of thousand bucks. I love liberals and how to save money, spend more, enlarge government. I know people (one related) who gets so mad because of the waste they see working in government. No one is accountable for how many hours they work, showing up two hours late for work, two hour lunches and no one cares. All governments need the Mike Foleys of the country to audit them, waste is costing us millions. Look at what Foley just found with the last audit, a mis-spending of $1.2 million for health insurance expenses by the State Troopers Association of Nebraska, they spent it on a building and luxury items for the building. This was from a law enforcement agency. I say, Tammy audit each and every department, that will save millions each year. Also guys, I guess it’s OK for Beutler and his administration to get us another $5.2 million in debt over the last four years. Yes, four years ago the debt was just $1 million.
Thanks to Deena’s hospitality, you have an opportunity here to discuss how different the policy decisions might have been had you been elected Mayor. Instead you choose insults, non-sequitur and strawman arguments.
Implicit in your muddled response is the assumption that city employees are The Problem. Let’s explore that hypothesis with a simple spreadsheet exercise: How many two-hour lunches does it take to equal the amount the City spent to purchase the Experian building? Or, how many librarians and building inspectors can come to work two hours late all year to “waste” the same amount of money represented by the City’s portion of the Kool-Aid Arena? Or, has the Stevens Creek experiment paid off yet; does that part of town produce more tax revenue than it costs to provide infrastructure?
Of course, I don’t have answers to these off-the-cuff questions. My point was, and still is, that the problem will not be solved by the small-potatoes demonizing and demoralizing of city employees. Significant and sustainable decrease in the City’s budget can occur only when a) the citizens ask less of of their government and b) their government responds appropriately.
And it would never be out of place to thank the city workers instead of dissing them at every opportunity.
A few people are making money and that’s how they vote right wrong, good bad, honest dishonest, integrity or not. Audits only go so far we need Preformance audit and back track records looked at.Does anyone remeber the fire truck scandel a few years back and the deparment head tried to cover it up if I remember it right. I’m sure thats happened more than once. How’s that go Nuff said.
Jon, I;m a member of LIBA , and they don’t speak for me. Go Tammy, this Dem will vote for you.