The latest City Manager’s Weekly Report shows that, on principal fiscal metrics of the 2008 city budget, Whitewater is heading in the wrong direction:
Total city spending under the approved budget will increase 3.28% to $9,23,640 from 2007 and the city property levy will increase 4.27% to $2,718,958 up from this year’s $2,607,619. The city tax rate will increase a total of 4 cents per $1000 assessed valuation from $4.80 to $4.84 for the Walworth County portion of the City while it will rise 7 cents per $1000 for the Jefferson County portion (from $4.71 to $4.78).
By the way, how does City Manager Brunner describe Police Chief Jim Coan’s upending of his budget process, in which Coan grabbed a proposed contribution for a contingency fund, and forced elimination of other proposed positions, for another full-time police officer? Here’s how:
The Common Council at its meeting this week unanimously approved the City’s 2008 Budget but not without adding a new police officer while cutting a few items to accommodate this new position. The proposed additional community service officer position, part-time administrative assistant position for the CDA and Neighborhood Services and a classification/compensation study of city positions were all deleted from the Budget in deference to creating the new police officer position.
There’s no mention of the lost contingency fund contribution, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars….
If Wile E. Coyote dropped an anvil on Kevin Brunner’s head, would Brunner apologize for getting in the way of the falling object?