Posted on 10/09/2008 4:22:56 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Be still my beating heart! I understand the California public employees unions have unbelievable retirement pensions and other benefits.
The loss from this financial crisis is so staggering that they cannot possibly borrow their way out of this. of course, Obama would fight it tooth-and-nail, but in the end, he would end up having no teeth and no nail.
I think there are a couple more shoes to drop-maybe more.
1. Banks who now “own” the forclosed homes will know the delay within their communities of how long the property taxex can go unpaid before the authorities seize the property for unpaid taxes. The banks are strapped for cash themselves, so I see them delaying payment for property taxes. No revenue to the localities——worse and worse for some time to come.
2. Impound accounts are usual in most home mortgages. No payments=no impound accounts getting funded, and the banks will be in a pickle trying to pay the insurance companies to protect the property/house from any calamity. NO insurance being paid will hurt the major home insurers. When will one or two of them start to tell us that?
3. I remember that if you didn’t put at least 20% down on a property, you were REQUIRED to have mortgage insurance in case you defaulted, and then the bank could collect the balance from the mortgage insurance company.
Didn’t these questionable mortgages have to have this insurance? Who is carrying all the insurance for all these defaults???????
There are lots more problems coming down the chain...
Any other opinions out there to add to mine??
You can make your own copies, handle your own schedules, make your own coffee, order your own office supplies, type your own memos, answer your telephones/voicemail, etc.
If given the choice...that's what I'd pick.
I feel for ya, though. It sounds like your citizens want more services than they can afford. Maybe they should hold a fundraiser. :D Good luck!
Thanks for your vote of confidence. Our former mayor stepped down rather than make tough decisions, and the councilman that stepped into the job hand-picked me to take his seat. We're here to try to clean up the mess. We've shut down the spending, reorganized some things to get an iron grip on certain departments that used to spend like crazy. We do have income production, but it doesn't rise as quickly as flood water.
If you have prior experience in city government, I'm sure open for suggestions.
I cringe when the powers that be start talking about the “deplorable” condition the schools are in.
First off, the kids are very destructive. I never would have even had the thought when I was a kid to damage anything at the school or in the lavatories, where they think it is cute to tear a sink off the wall or plug up the toilets so they can get out of school for the day.
I went to school thru 7th grade in a ONE ROOM school in rural Wisconsin. We had 2 two-holer crappers out back, and a Merry-go-Round for a playground. There was no running water, and water was brought in every school day be a local farmer in a 10 gallon milk can, and put into a large ceramic holder with a spigot on the bottom. The older kids had to shovel coal into the old furnace in the winter, and haul the clinkers out and spread them on the driveway that went around the school.
8 grades-——14 kids-——1 teacher who had 2 years college education. I think I got a better foundation education than anyone gets today in a fancier building.
The schools are a drain—
The kids are there for 13 years, counting kindergarten. When they come out of the pipeline after 13 years of publicly funded “education” they are useless and arrogant.
If there was a lemon law for students of today’s teachers, the courts wouldn’t get anything else done.
I've already suggested you cease funding the library. That's a luxury, not a necessity for government. Get back to me after that's done and we'll take a look at the books.
What? LOL! We got a free building given to us, freely, by the owner of the building. But you're telling me it wasn't.
I want whatever you're drinking.
As a point of interest, do you have a job other than that of city council? What might it be?
I was posting and changing a diaper, and didn’t see your library suggestion. I agree, I’d like to close it. In an age where nearly everyone in town has internet access, what do we need it for?
But for the tax problem, it’d be a simple vote. But it’ll involve a choice on the ballot. We can’t just voice vote.
You said upthread that y'all have a library tax but it doesn't cover the costs. I assume the deficit is made up from general funds. Now unless there is some law which says it must be funded over and above the collected taxes, then they sink or swim on ever how much the tax brings in. This isn't rocket science here.
Yes, I have two jobs. I work in a retail business, and I work out of town in a service business. My city council job pays a pittance. It’s about enough to pay my property taxes at the end of the year.
The point of all this is our town is indeed having financial difficulties, somewhat in accordance with the original post. I’ve been asking if we are at risk with what’s going on nationally, and no one seems to think so.
The wording of the establishment of the library. We are to provide a library. Should we raise the library tax? Goes on the ballot. Should we kill it off? Ballot.
The options we have are only funding it, and yelling at them to do fundraisers. I’m for putting it on the ballot next time around.
Something ain't adding up here. The taxpayers of your town have no obligation to provide an open-ended supply of dollars to fund a library. If you supplied them with blank checks, the library would never run short of "need."
So what we're talking about here is just how much library you can afford. It's just that simple - they have to live within their means like we all do.
Maybe when it was established, the tax was enough. But utilities have increased a lot just since I’ve been here. I suppose we could have the library shut off all the lights and heat. Maybe we could go all Amish and put in a skylight.
We're going in circles here. You seem to think the library must operate as if there's no end to money for operation, regardless of how much it's supporting tax raises. Obviously, that money comes from other tax sources and by extension starves other city services of money.
I refuse to believe there is some requirement that says your city must pay whatever it takes to fund a library beyond its dedicated tax revenues.
Some suggestions: Cut hours. Cut staff. Downsize. Continue until expenses match dedicated tax revenues. Problem solved.
Now if you all haven't the political stones to do this, then by all means threaten the population with police or fire department layoffs as a form of extortion to get new taxes passed.
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