WPCNR THE DAILY BAILEY.  News & Comment By John F. Bailey. August 18, 2007: Councilman Benjamin Boykin will be convening the Budget & Management Committee of the city Tuesday evening at 6 in the Mayor’s Conference room. The councilman, when WPCNR inquired what the agenda was, has not responded.

However, it should be no secret what the B & M Committee needs to do for the city: budget and manage. Because no one in the city administration is: the city policy since the Delfino Administration has been in power is spend and find the money to pay. (Quick, get me some money, please!)

The quick fix floated out by the Mayor and his Chief Financial Officer this spring for 2008-2009 was a half percent increase in the sales tax and a hotel tax. The half percent, they said would bring in an extra $10 Million in sales tax into the city coffers, easily covering anticipated labor settlements of at maybe 4-1/2 percent across the board. (Currently the CSEA is working without a contract, but the police, fire, and teamster unions are coming up, I believe expiring June 2008.)  If I were a union head I’d want 4-1/2% minimum since the city laid on 4% last time.

The Budget & Management Committee should question the Chief Financial Officer of the City on the status of labor negotiations and how they will impact the city over the next five years.

A 4.5% increase in salaries of $71 Million translates to a $3.2 Million increase in the  $155 Million budget yearly.

Throw in a benefits increase of  10% (based on average rising fringe benefit costs), the estimated increase in benefits for those employees of $33.3 Million  and you have another $2.6 Million a year cost – and that eats up your half of your $10 Million the half percent sales tax increase brings you. A 4% or more settlement will increase the budget automatically about $5 to 6 Million. That leaves another $4 Million plus possible hotel tax revenues for the other expenses – the new debt, the certioraris, the infrastructure improvements.

What that says to me is the city has to have that half percent sales tax they want Adam Bradley to carry to Albany this fall or next spring.  What do we think? In the Budget year before going into a Mayoral election is the Common Council and the Mayor thinking negotiating hard with the unions and holding the increase below 4% -- in line with the school district teachers settlement – a shocking 3.2%?

What do you think the odds are of that happening? I think the unions are going to negotiate hard with the city. We are talking the 08-09 budget.

Now there is another strategy here. The Council could call for restraint here and make a deal with the unions to dip under 4% say to 3.5%, but I would not think so.  The Budget & Management Committee could push for that. At the very least the Chairman Mr. Boykin should raise the issue with the Chief Financial Officer, and what givebacks the unions might be prepared to do in the future for new hires.

However the Budget & Management Committee should not take the usual excuse that it is the Administration that negotiates for the city. Poppycock. They never go out with set goals that the Budget & Management Committee and ultimately the councilpersons on it have to set. The administration keeps it to themselves.

Well – the members of the Budget & Management Committee – who basically act as rubber stamps –  even though they whine a lot about liability, certioraris and wages and expenses -- have no power. The Budget & Management Committee supposedly is composed of financial experts – but those experts are never given the figures or budget plans until almost the eleventh hour. It was past the 11^th hour last spring – the latest ever the city presented them with a budget. The council got the budget before the Budget & Management committee did. And Chairman Boykin went along with that. Not a peep of protest.

So, just to be helpful – that is one issue the Budget & Management Committee could jump on right away – just to give the public the public relations impression that they are budgeting and managing.

Another item Mr. Boykin and Mr. Bernstein should introduce Tuesday evening is demand an employee survey of what positions could be cut going forward from the City Personnel Director. Personnel Management has to be reviewed  department by department. In previous years, the Chief Financial Officer, whether it was the Budget Director, (the city no longer has one), the excuse was given that the city asks the departments for their projections in February, asking for them back in March. Well that leaves little room for maneuvering and spending change.

If the Budget & Management Committee really had any power they would tell the administration enough of this charade, have the departments do a personnel inventory now. Of course, the administration response will be we are underhired as it is. Well, you can’t afford what you have – and let me tell you Adam Bradley is not going to carry a request for an extra half per cent in sales tax every year.

While we’re at it, the Budget & Management Committee has to demand a projection from the assessor on expected property taxes to be collected from the new projects coming on: Avalon Bay, the Ritz, etc. Please. The assessor and the Chief Financial Officer should be able to project  property tax revenues into the future to give a better view of the city financial situation. If they can't, why?

The general policy is to lurch from year to year with no financial planning.

This brings me to another thing Mr. Boykin and his committee should demand and that has been repeatedly requested – three and five year financial projects on certioraris, revenues, etc., and expenses.  The administration – whether it is because of general secrecy or inability to project has not done this though requested in previous years.

Now, the projections should also included population trends, service needs, infrastructure demands. The White Plains way the last 9 years has been to take this up piecemeal. Commissioners come in and request all kinds of goodies and the Council in their laissez faire way maybe whittles a little – but generally accepts most of the whole enchiladas being presented from rolling stock, to water mains.

What I’d like to see is for the Budget & Management Committee to budget and manage, because by not reexamining from zero base every year your budget just grows. That is why the White Plains City Budget and the School Budget too (this year being an exception) has grown at double the inflation rate the last nine years.

Gentlemen – a little budget management, please.

No more laissez faire, please. City taxpayers cannot afford it.

And, let us not let the big spenders at Education House off the hook, either. As a taxpayer I want to see a lot more cuts than they gave us last year. A lot more. They actually only raised the budget 6.9% this year. Just double the inflation rate. How about an exercise run through, cutting the budget so it only rises 3%? This is the start to fiscal sanity at Education House.

They should convene the Annual Budget Advisory Committee now, and get some new blood on it, and put the budget process out in the open, and tackle it area by area.

The city administration always sells their expense side by wringing hands and the Common Council and Budget & Management Committee goes along with it.

The school district is more diabolical. They convene the Annual Budget Committee, and present faux knockout items that the ABC Committee focuses on. Remember the idea of bringing services for disabled in house a few years ago? That was an excellent concept present by Tim Connors the Superintendent, but the ABC Committee balked in one of the dumber cuts. However it gave the impression the district was cutting. That's how they work the ABC Committee.

It is crucial for them to do so, because the teachers only agreed to a one-year contract, (a 3.2% raise), and some givebacks. Next year, they are going to want to make that up big time.

School District secrecy -- the shrouded strategic planning process going on behind closed doors -- is all something that is going to have to change. But it will not if no one has the stomach to change it.

But meanwhile, the Budget & Management Committee will convene Tuesday.

Mr. Boykin, up for election, has the unique opportunity to position himself as the man who knows the money. But since he did not raise the issues of the Chief Financial Officer not providing budget information in an "in-time-to-discuss options" sequence last year when he had every opportunity to make a big protest about it, I am not expecting much.

They at least should ask -- what's being done with the one-shot revenues brought in last year for starters.

Accountability, planning, projecting, admitting to problems is how good management works.

In White Plains there is no accountability, no planning, no projecting, no problems.

But we keep having problems, don't we?

At least the taxpayer does every April.