As the State of Illinois slides further down the financial rat-hole after decades of irresponsible spending by (take your pick) stupid/greedy/crooked politicians pandering to (take your pick) stupid/greedy/crooked constituents, tomorrow morning our own Park Ridge City Council will hold yet another of its workshops to discuss the 2010-11 budget (9:00 a.m. at City Hall).
Unfortunately, from what we’ve seen of this process so far, the prospects for balancing this year’s budget – after 3 straight years of the City spending millions more than it took in and depleting its reserves – are not looking particularly good.
In the first place, we still don’t have even one alderman who has committed, as a matter of public record, to passing a legitimately balanced budget. Judging by what they are saying (and not saying), we see little evidence that they will make all of the cuts City Mgr. Jim Hock’s proposed 2010-11 budget calls for, even though that budget projects a $227,000 deficit based on revenues which seem more than a little overly “optimistic.”
And that $227,000 deficit is with a 5% increase in the City’s portion of our property tax bill. We don’t know why Hock stopped there, but we also don’t know why the aldermen aren’t more aggressively tackling the problem of filling that hole.
Worse yet, if you were paying attention on Wednesday, you know that Gov. Pat Quinn is asking that Illinois municipalities (like Park Ridge) “share the pain” of state government’s fiscal buffoonery by giving up 30% of the revenue they normally get from the state. For Park Ridge, that means reducing Park Ridge’s expected $3,122,100 of state funding [pdf] by a whopping $936,630, turning the proposed budget’s projected $227,000 deficit into a $1,163,630 one.
What have the aldermen been saying and doing about this so far? Nothing of substance.
Joe Sweeney (1st Ward) and Ald. Don Bach (3rd Ward) started this process by saying that they won’t vote for any cuts to police and fire, even though the City reports [pdf] that one “average” police officer costs $94,758.66/year, and one “average” fireman costs $94,258.63/year. Bach also objects to the rest of the personnel cuts in the proposed budget but, not surprisingly, he hasn’t come up with any alternatives.
Ald. Robert Ryan (5th Ward) has made it known he wants to add back the customary $200,000+ in handouts to private community groups that were left out of the proposed budget.
Alds. Rich DiPietro (2nd Ward), Jim Allegretti (4th Ward), Tom Carey (6th Ward) and Frank Wsol (7th Ward) have been keeping their cards close to their vests. Whether that’s because they have no great ideas on this subject (likely) or because they are once again playing politics with the budget (more likely), the effect is the same: no meaningful progress on balancing the budget that must be approved in seven weeks.
Meanwhile, City finances continue to death spiral downward.