Thursday, February 9, 2012

Kansas City Budget Quick Thoughts

I just read over Sly James' letter about the proposed budget for the city--I had a few thoughts:

When is it good-money-after-bad? When is it enough money to the poorest areas of town and maybe some more for areas that are not at the bottom of the hill? Tell me, how many people are walking in the third and fifth council districts? I see people walking all the time here in the sixth! Send some of that sidewalk money down here--we'll use the walkways. (That's just an example. Do we want to spend a lot of money on parts of the community that have slid down the hill already or do we want to work to prevent other parts of the community from sliding down the hill?)

Can we cut non-frontline people? You can not tell me with a straight face that there is not fat in middle management in every department in the city, including police and fire. Don't cut boots on the ground. Cut the assistant to the associate assistant!

The water department: please get real managers there before we give them any more money!

If I read my info right, the infrastructure work would be financed by bonds, that would increase tax burden about $55 on average. More information please: remember all the rumors? 150% property tax increase, city vehicle tax returning...are those still in play?

A lot of verbage, a lot of good intentions, a developing story.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

NOticed that the mayors office is gettingmore people and a bigger budget and that the fire chiefs office has had a huge increase in the budget over the last 3 years. MOre money down the drain for the 18th and Vine, P&L district, Bartle Hall, Has anything the city government told us financially for the past 20 years worked out?