If you see the city manager or an Emporia city commissioner, you might congratulate them on a job well done.
They are putting the final touches on the 2010 city budget, and the good news for residents is that the proposed budget will not have to raise taxes to help fund city operations.
At the start of the budget process, the city had a $2 million dollar shortfall. But after some hard work and cost cutting, the revised proposed budget would leave a $13,008 budget surplus.
With lower revenues expected in the coming year the city might have been tempted to rely on cash reserves to cover budget shortfalls or to raise taxes. But the city did the right thing to make budget cuts.
Cutting things from a budget is never popular, and people have concerns. But the city weighed all the options as well as gave the community plenty of opportunities to voice their concerns at public meetings.
There are cities and counties all across the country who are struggling to make their budgets. Congratulations to Emporia’s city manager, commissioners, staff, and the community for working together to deliver a budget without raising taxes.
Chris Walker
Editor & Publisher
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
chris the people you really need to thank is all the hard working class and people on fixed incomes. this past year rates and taxes on every imaginable convenience has went up dramaticly. the cost to administer the water fund is about 666,000 dollars. when i shared this with a local businessman, he said, this is what i call the rape of the water fund and the same thing is going on with the other utility funds. last year the city commission passed a resolution where they can legally transfer funds to pay for other expences of the city. to me this is an aggressive tax on the least able to pay. it should be no surprise that sales tax receipts are on the decline, people have less disposable income. any citzen under the open records act can request information. the administer fees are running 18 percent of gross sales and i heard one cpa say this way way to high. most of the commissioners i believe are conservative in there own little world, however, this article strips the right wing hustle to its core. if you care about the future of emporia and america, i urge you to join the local tea party organization.
August 5, 2009 at 6:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
spectator (anonymous) says...
Chris, I can't agree that the people you mentioned are to be congratulated just yet. There's a 16% increase on utilities yet to be assessed and I'm sure more "little" things to be brought to light. They may be aggressively trying to dig us out of this pit but we didn't get there overnight. And it's wrong to believe we can, or even try to, get out overnight. They have cut to the bone and expect to cut more as well as expect the citizens to ante up more funds. Those of us on a fixed income haven't anything left but bone. By the way, is that project to beautify the turnpike interchange for twenty thousand dollars (in hopes to lure turnpike travelers off the highway to look at the rest of the town) still a go? Why?
August 5, 2009 at 9:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )