And It Starts

Trenton’s City Council had its first peek at the Mack Administration’s proposal for its Fiscal Year 2012/2013 budget at its meeting last night, and voted formally to introduce it, meaning that the long process of review, public comment, revisions and formal adoption begins.

The first thing that needs to be said is that Business Administrator Sam Hutchinson and his Finance and Budget teams deserve some well-earned applause for taking the initiative to construct a budget process and timetable that will – if adhered to – will result in an Adopted FY 2013 budget in December. Of this year! Fully six months before the beginning of the budget year. Comparing that to years past, when budgets were adopted in April, May, or June, this represents a big step forward for a transparent and accountable process. Good for them!

That being said, how do the numbers look? Well, for a start, there are relatively few hard numbers available. A copy of the Administration’s Power Point presentation is available online, thanks to Jim Carlucci (and not the City, ahem! Accessing this document may require you to register with Google Mail, by the way). The City proposes an overall increase of about $800,000, which is less than one-half of one percent higher than last year. However, Trenton assumes a reduction in state Transitional Aid – a program designed to steadily decrease as the City is theoretically preparing to receive Zero state dollars in a few years’ time – of $3.3 Million.

That reduction is anticipated to be met by yet another rise in city property taxes of $4 Million, a net increase of 5.5%. However, since the City’s ratables base of taxable properties continues to decline by hundreds of millions of dollars a year – which development Mayor Mack actually applauded back in June! – that $4 Million will have to be raised from a smaller base, and therefore a likely effective raise per taxpayer of somewhat over 5.5%.

The actual final numbers of the tax increase will probably be adjusted as the process goes forward over the next few months. And if the proposed increase of the tax rate exceeds 15 cents per $100 of valuation, as last night’s projected increase of 19 cents does, that may need approval via a public referendum, as Robert Lowe reminds. However this process unwinds in the next few months, the property tax issue will surely be a volatile one.

So where is the money going? There is only a one-page summary attached to the presentation, with one-line totals for each department, so it’s hard to tell what’s behind the numbers. But here are some headlines:

• The Office of the Mayor is down (Good!!!) by almost $200,000, or almost 40%.
• Finance is up by almost $200,000 or 11.3%.
• The Fire Department is just about flat, net, but a note indicates that budgeted Overtime is down by $1.5 Million.
• Despite additional officers being recalled to the Police force, that department is projected to be reduced by $1.875 Million, 5 1/2%. This bears more discussion.
• Housing and Economic Development is up by $87K, but that is a 25% jump. Hmm…
• Recreation is up by $129K, a full 10%. More on that below.
• Unemployment costs plummet by almost $2.2 Million, 81%. That’s likely a reflection of the fact that the City does not anticipate another massive wave of layoffs in the next year.

So from hereon in, we should expect a good deal of discussion and wrangling over these numbers, as more details come in on the numbers and the plans and objectives for each department.

There is one department for which we already have some details, and they are raising some questions in my mind, at least. Thanks, once again, to Jim Carlucci and to Diana Lipski, we have a copy of the proposed budget for the Recreation, Natural Resources and Culture Department. As stated above, this department proposes a 10% increase in its budget. Wonder why? Let’s take a look.

I wrote yesterday that any consideration of the Rec budget by Council for next year would absolutely require the hiring of a fulltime Departmental Director. I am pleased to see that one has been included in the plans for this year’s budget. Considering how many problems the Rec Department has had throughout the Mack years, I can only consider this a good step in the right direction – IF a good person can be recruited for the job, that is!

One slightly maddening aspect of the way this budget proposal has been laid out is that most of the detail pages compare last year’s Budget to this year’s Budget. A few pages add additional, very helpful information: what last year’s actual Expenses were. I think it’s good to see last year’s plan (the Budget) compared to the new proposal, but it’s also crucial to see how last year’s plan matches up with last year’s reality. It’s good to see that on a few pages, but maddening that this level of information isn’t provided throughout the budget.

However, the actual expenses and budget information is provided for the Recreation Programs area (Pages 8-11). And the picture drawn here is not very pretty. Last year’s budget for this area was $150,200. Yet the Actual expenses came to $222,351; this is a budget overrun of $72,000, or 48%!

The proposed budget for the current year is just about double last year, at $299,290. And that is $77,000 more than what was actually spent last year.  To me, that kind of increase, in this economy, and given what Trenton is going through, is crazy. Why the big numbers?

This is where the City has its numbers for its big annual events, such as our Thanksgiving Day Parade, Tree Lighting Ceremony, support of Little League teams and other sports programs and the Mayor’s Achievement Awards (presumably awards given to others who actually achieve, as opposed to granting an award to the Mayor for his own Achievements; this would be a very small award, indeed).

It’s also where we see some, and only some, of the costs for the Mayor’s Learning Center Zombie Libraries. These costs are estimated at $105, 340 in the Rec budget for the current budget year. But since these costs only itemize salaries and wages for paid personnel, and do not include any costs for things like utilities and building maintenance, janitorial services, costs of materials and programs, background checks and training for volunteers (yeah, right, like they do any of that!); this summary can only be seen as an extremely partial and incomplete look at the true costs of these misbegotten “Centers.”

It would be very safe to assume, though, that the costs of these Learning Centers are a principal cause of the massive overruns in that department for last year. And probably will do so again this year.

So, this first look at the Rec budget, and the overall budget presentation – although  great to see so early – prompts several concerns and questions that I hope Council will pursue with great zeal in the weeks and months ahead.

Some Council members last night indicated that’s what they intend to do. As one example, North Ward Council member Marge Caldwell-Wilson told BA Sam Hutchinson, “When we start discussing recreation, I’m going to sharpen my pencils for that. I think we can save a lot on unnecessary spending there. I’m just giving you a heads-up.”

We’ll see. Council as a body hasn’t exactly been bucking for any “Profiles in Courage” awards lately. I’ll wish them luck, and look forward to seeing how the process goes from here.