Happy, Fun Kansas City Budget Rumors, Speculation And Lies!!!
The Acting City Manager's first draft of the budget could come out at any time today. Don't worry, it's not going to be as interesting as new Victoria's Secret Valentine's Day photos of Candice Swanepoel. Still, there's some interesting chatter running rampant at City Hall right now that's worth examining.
Here are just a few highlight . . .
CHATTER AROUND CITY HALL CLAIMS THAT THE KCPD WILL GET A BUMP, DESERVEDLY SO!!! I LIKE THE PO-PO AND THINK THEY DESERVE THIS TOWN'S SUPPORT!!!
Still, Mayor Funky made a big deal of this last time around and there is certainly a bit of political calculation apparent with this move . . . To wit . . .
UNDER MAYOR FUNKY'S LEADERSHIP (OR LACK THEREOF) THIS LOOKS LIKE ONE OF THE MOST INTENSELY POLITICAL BUDGETS KANSAS CITY HAS SEEN IN QUITE SOME TIME!!!
Once again City Services and money for neighborhoods are rumored to be taking a another big hit but that's not exactly news . . . What's more interesting is that Mayor Funky is no longer a "City That Works" candidate and has now switched his rhetoric to that of someone who seems to be running on a Public Safety platform . . . Where budget allocations is the only area he can even hope to achieve credibility given his EXTREMELY LIMITED participation in the community in terms of helping to stop crime.
Word is that nobody is going to like what Smokey Dyer is doing with MAST numbers.
For even more fun . . .
THERE'S A SILLY RUMOR THAT TROY SCHULTE IS GOING TO HAVE MAGICALLY ERASED THE $60 MILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT THAT CAUTHEN'S ENEMIES USED TO DRIVE HIM OUT!!! WHICH MEANS THAT OUTSIDERS (I.E. BOND RATING COMPANIES) MIGHT LOOK AT KANSAS CITY'S BOOKS WITH A BIT MORE SUSPICION!!!
I seriously doubt that anybody could claim to have "found" 20, 30 or 60 Million in the budget with a straight face . . . Then again, KC politics and finances are always entertaining. Look for a significant decrease in the budget debt that Mayor Funky and Schulte will trumpet which is fair play . . . But anything big might signal the typical hubris that has crippled the Funky Administration and proven to be his Achilles' heel.
Cooler heads say that cuts will come across the board . . . Whatever the case this should be fun . . .
Feel free to post your gossip or insight and mostly (equally?) misinformed ranting as this cowtown once again considers how broke we are during this Great Recession.
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10 Comments:
I am indebted to that GREAT ASS!
Schulte is an expert at cooking the books: has anyone noticed how he comes up with new ways to shift expenses/staff to other funds? Like shifting staff to sales tax funds or allocating his own staff to the funds that they oversee. Moving HR support staff into the retirement fund is one example that I think he did last year. And what's the deal with the "off budget" and "budgeted" funds changing around every year? Is a lot of this "debt reduction" a result of moving the payments to "off budget" funds???? Some one needs to take a very close look at HOW he got rid of the $60 million deficit. . .
If the City Bond rating drops, I suggest dropping Schulte from the payroll. In what we are constantly reminded is a weak mayor form of government, if this occurs on any City Managers watch, there is only one person to blame... the City Manager.
Maybe the Funk can cut a deal with the Council to resign as Mayor and become the City Manager? He has tried in the past to be the CM... heaven help us all.
Perhaps Gloria should do the budget since she did such a bang up job on Funkhouser's campaign finance reports?
The "bump" for the po-po is still about $20mm less than what the department needs to run - it still means no new cops, no academy class, no promotions, no raises (even COLA) and the same "don't forget to use both sides" memo in the men's room.
More money for the cops and cut basic services. Now maybe each cop can have two take-home cars. Or maybe they can drive the vacant plow trucks since your cutting public works budget. Smart move.
I don't think it's going to be fun, asshole.
Good luck getting a hold of anyone in the City when you need assistance- more layoffs means a lot less staff. You might not think that is important until you have to go to City Hall or the Water dept. for services. Fire supposedly received a cost of living this year, while the rest of the city staff had raises frozen and insurance rates increased. No big deal? It will be when your water stops running and their is a Fire on your block. Flat tire due to pot hole- suck it up - you wanted there to be less staff. If MAST does not have to reside in KCMO city limits- watch out a revolt will surely happen with other city workers. Welcome to 2010-2011 budget. Maybe council should slash their salary- it is more than a lot of city workers make.
Next years budget increases the police department by 4 Million and has 4 Million in personell cuts in other departments. That's 100 employees at $40,000 per. They're not cutting cops, there not cutting fire, there not cutting information technology, the action center, human relations, or human resources. Water and aviation are enterprise fund. There cutting public works.
Goodie, more take home police vehicles. More police captains and majors running their own businesses on city time. Yes, you know who you are and soon the media will as well.
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