Another Budget Hole to Plug

[JFman00]

Boy this city isn't very good at measuring and estimating things eh?


Too many leaks to plug in Jacksonville's budget

The City Council Finance Committee now has a better understanding of the plight of the Aflac duck dealing with a leaky boat.
Each time the duck plugs one hole another opens and sends a geyser of water skyward.
That’s been the story of this summer’s city budget hearings.
The supposed balanced budget Mayor Alvin Brown submitted for the next fiscal year turned out to be Swiss cheese.
Each time the Finance Committee dealt with one budget “oops” another would appear.
The latest came this week as the deadline for wrapping up the budget is fast approaching.
The committee was told that disability claims by police and firefighters related to heart disease and hypertension have “mushroomed.”
If the administration’s numbers are correct, there could be a $7 million to $8 million problem.
Do you remember that “hurricane” that City Council Auditor Kirk Sherman warned about when the council voted to give Sheriff John Rutherford $10.5 million in projected savings in this year’s budget to balance his department’s next budget?
With a month left in the current fiscal year, Sherman cautioned that would leave the city with a “razor thin” margin if unexpected expenses popped up.
Well, these disability claims could be that hurricane.
Here in round numbers is how this particular mess came about:
Projections â€" stress the word projections â€" were that there would be $26 million in savings in the general fund at the end of this budget year.
Sounds good, right? The problem is projected revenues in the general fund were off by $13 million.
Still the remaining $13 million in savings would be enough to cover an unexpected bill such as one for $8 million in disability claims.
Wrong. When the council took that $10.5 million from this budget and moved it to the next, that wiped out most of that money.
That creates a hole in the current budget, and if the council fills it by reneging on the $10.5 million deal, that would create a major problem in Rutherford’s budget for next year.
For his part, Rutherford argues that the amount of disability claims is wrong, that if the claims materialize, they will come in 2014 and that this is all a ploy by the Brown administration, which had opposed moving the $10.5 million, to “unravel” his budget.
The latter, ahem, seems a little farfetched.
But that aside, Rutherford has already created a problem for his budget in 2014 by relying on one-time money to balance the 2013 budget.
Does he want to make the 2014 budget even more difficult by not dealing with this now?
With all the numbers swirling around, the Finance Committee delayed a decision until Friday morning when there’s a clearer picture.
In the meantime, I’m certain committee members are hoping no more leaks open up. Like the Aflac duck, they’ve run out of feet, wings and beaks to plug them.

[thelakelander]

You can't cut your way to prosperity.  Can't squeeze blood out of a turnip.