Meanwhile, back home in New Brighton

We gotta pot o' money and we're gonna spend, spend, spend! The invaluable Gina Bauman, who is the only true watchdog on the City Council, spells out the particulars:

The following is a summary of the proposed budget, along with some of my concerns:

• Even though you might have heard of a 4-1 vote taken in September that the preliminary 2015 city taxing levy is being raised by only 1.92% (approximately $131,000), this is not reflective of true budgeted spending by the city. Point of information: While this number can only go down, I have not heard from any other council member or the mayor that they are interested in doing so.

• The city will receive $554,000 in Local Government Aid (LGA) from state taxpayers which will be put into the general fund for additional spending.

• Ramsey County determined that it had wrongly collected $101,000 in city property taxes last year. This amount was returned to the city, but will also be put into the general fund for additional spending. If you add all of the above figures, there will be approximately $789,000 – a levy amount of over 12% of additional spending. There will also be $211,600 use of revenue reserves.

Last year, Bauman got the city to return all the LGA money back to the citizens as property tax relief. This year, the City Manager, Dean Lotter, wants to spend the LGA money.

The big problem with this approach is that you can't count on LGA money coming every year. If you build the money into the budgeting process and it doesn't come through next year, the city will be looking at a big hole in the budget. As Bauman relates, Lotter has a wish list:

As the 2015 budget now stands, most of the tax increases paid by New Brighton residents will be used for the following:

• Increase of $200,000+ for staff, salaries and steps. Note – The average salary before benefits and insurance is $75,000. Point of information: City manager salary will be approx. $126,000 plus a step increase. He believes that he is underpaid.
• Increase of $850,000+ for renovation of the rest rooms and locker rooms and the purchase of new exercise equipment for the New Brighton Community Center. Please note that only about 850 of the 1500 members live in New Brighton.
• Increase of almost $300,000 for the Police Department (budget $4,489,500/year).
• Also, employee health insurance is going up by 22.5% in 2015 and the city manager would like another $116,500 – not included in the preliminary budget – to be paid by the taxpayers. A reorganization proposed by the city manager this past Tuesday could result in a budget savings of $167,213. He has, however,  proposed using those funds to offset the employee health care increase.

Emphasis in original. The city council meets next Tuesday to vote on the budget. It seems that the skids are already greased. A show of support for Bauman might persuade a few people that this isn't a good idea. More at the link.