$9.3 million city budget gap — that’s gotta be a record

Please put me in the “I told you So !” camp.
Please tell me with the crime rate up, we lay off policepersons and build a castle for the new director of public safety. Yes, Tom… I am refering to you .

@pmg You say “with the crime rate up” as though that were an established fact. The police department’s annual report shows variation in raw numbers of crimes – some have increased, others have decreased and some have done both over the last year/decade. For the really scary crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, etc., only the last two (rape & robbery) have gone up in the past decade; the rest have all decreased. In absolute numbers.

While all this crime has been changing, and significant to the phrase “with the crime rate up” the population of Lincoln has been on the increase, making the denominator of your “rate” a larger number, thus lowering the rate no matter what the change in the numerator.

Given the interesting history of the fire department over this same time period, one might wish the capable Chief Casady had been in charge all along.

Finally, all this grief over ninety bucks a year? How much did you pay for your last set of tires? What’s your annual budget for work clothes? Et cetera. If the benefits of living in Lincoln are of so little value, why aren’t you living in Princeton, Syracuse, Red Cloud or Steele City?

We need to make more cuts in services, and then maybe the mayor could hire a few more aides with full benefits to figure out a way to close the deficit. Is there any more buildings for sale, like the experian building? If we could get a couple more jewels like that, imagine the savings. I thought we gave up the star city parade, the 4th of July, where did all the savings go? Wheres the transparency mayor? Oh, that was last campaign! Sorry. Well, hopefully tourism will help cut the deficit, due to our worst roads in the United States. Surely, people will want to say, “I dove those streets”. Maybe the city could sell t-shirts saying,”I survived the streets of Lincoln”. Just an idea.” Transparency and infrastructure”, who said that?

It’s pretty clear to me that after several years of “TIF” ing away our future tax base, our future has arrived with the current budget dilemmas upon us. 7 to 10 million dollars worth! [ For simple explanation on TIF- tax increment financing, see the short entry in Wikipedia .] Tax money currently devoted to past “Blighted-area” [sic] projects using TIF [even used in areas where its debatable the particular area is really blighted], is money that could have went to current and future budgetary needs. And of course we wont mention buying the Experian bldg., the Antelope Valley project, the Arena and other misc. “socialism for the rich” developers projects -quite often argued for in the name of “JOBS”, or flood-control, or, or – which by the way returns a handsome profit to the big banks and investors. Also perhaps we need an investigation of the so-called “2015 Vision Group” [bet there aren’t many hard-working, tax paying low or middle-income folks in it!], who all sits on its board, how much they personally profited from all their pet projects [TIF ed or Bonded], that we are faced with paying for with a reduced tax-base -thanks to a recession, along with reduced city services and a decaying infra-structure. So, now we can debate which parks, libraries, swim pools and fire stations to close, how many policemen or firemen to layoff, etc.. Vitally needed things. Or, for the limited -income, financially strapped home-owner a rise in his/her property taxes. [And the recession has no end in sight, and could get much worse.} A good deal of it because of Corporate Welfare disguised as a TIF job-creation project or blight clearance [used to call that one “urban renewal”], or mis-directed priorities using bonds. To be intellectually honest here, both Republican and Democratic administrations have been guilty of these mis-directed priorities and tax monies, this is not a partisan thing to be sure. Besides, too often the only differences between. any two partisan candidates is their stand on some “emotional hot-button ” social issue like smoking or strip clubs or the latest liquor license application and then turn around and join join hands in endorsing these “future budget-busting” Corporatist endeavors. I voted against the Arena bond. But, at the time if the bond were going to fund vital city services during a recession, and timed to be paid off in a few years and not decades, using THE “occupation tax”, I could live with those priorities. I would surmise most Lincolnites would. TIF needs to be got rid of. Larry H. Wikoff

Here’s my only problem with the idea of a slight tax increase to cover the gap – it doesn’t teach the powers that be to do anything more wise about budgets, spending, and some self-control. If they can simply rely on raising the taxes, there’s nothing left to really truly keep them in check. I’m not opposed to a small increase, but the root problems must also be addressed.

“it is far more frightening to ignore the situation and place our hopes in unrealistic schemes with uncertain outcomes.”

Isn’t it interesting that he makes this statement now about the city’s poor economic health. He made a similar statement when he postponed the arena election, but he still believes we can afford the Haymarket redevelopement project. And for the record, HE was at the helm for 4 years while running the city into the ground, even though he campaigned that he would straighten things out. And now he’s saying he won’t be known as the leader who allowed Lincoln to degrade. HA!