[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Why the Deception?

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Why the Deception?
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1243802003.shtml


   Last week on Tom Hauser's "At Issue" on KSTP-TV, Governor Pawlenty
   singled out the City of Wadena for complaining about LGA cuts while
   sitting on $1 million in "rainy day" funds. This week, Mayor Wayne
   Wolden was on "At Issue" to present his side. He also President of the
   Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, which probably explains why
   Pawlenty chose Wadena to make his point. Wolden made a good point that
   Pawlenty was mischaracterizing their cash flow account, which buffers
   the uneven arrival of revenue with the more steady departure of
   expenditures. All cities have them, usually enough to fund several
   months of operations.
   But after that, the weaseling began, the Mayor claiming that Wadena
   was really going to be up against it without their full share of LGA
   money. Supposedly they had talked of police layoffs in the past, and
   plowing every other blizzard now. So, off to Google and the Wadena web
   site I went, bringing up their [1]2007 Financial Report, the latest
   available. As one involved in my own city's budgeting, the 2008
   situation did not change much, nor did the Wadena Mayor contend that
   it did.
   First thing I see is that the City is running a number of businesses
   on the side: municipal liquor, a golf course, and electricity service,
   plus the usual water and sewer operations. All told, this generated
   $1.1 million, which with a small surplus in government operations gave
   the city a total surplus of $1.3 million. Sounds like rainy day money
   to me. Local Government Aid (LGA) was $1.3 million. Property taxes
   were just short of $1.0 million. The population is just under 4,000,
   declining about 1 percent per year since 2000.
   On the expense side, total public safety was $806 thousand and public
   works $727 thousand. That and general government total about $1.6
   million, a very manageable number with this revenue stream. It has to
   be if they have another million for culture, recreation, and economic
   development.
   Further, Wadena's involvement in so many non-governmental operations
   makes any such claims moot. The funds are so co-mingled as to preclude
   any cause and effect analysis. Does LGA truly fund government
   operations? Or subsidize electric utility rates?
   The Mayor's articulate predictions of painful austerity because of
   proposed 2009 LGA cuts vanish upon reading this one page of very
   public information. Why the deception?

References

   1. http://tinyurl.com/nza5za