City projects not on horizon in new year; council members say money not there

[strider]

The odds are that those projects ripe for cutting because they have been "steered aimlessly among a sea of lax fiscal management" are also the ones the right people want the most.  Even Lori Boyer has proven that she knows she must go along to get anything at all for her district so looking for great reforms from her or Crescimbini will lead nowhere but to disappointment.

If we elect better, if we care more, if time moves a few of the right people out of their power positions, we may eventually see real change and real movement forward.  It won't be soon however.

Revenues decreased substantially for the past few years (this year there was a 3.5% increase in COJ revenues), while borrowing has drastically increased (sorry for not having the exact number in front of me). Meanwhile, you have a backlog of CIP projects that either never started, never got funded, had funds taken away from them inexplicably or wound up costing far more than they were supposed to.

Some spending and reserve accounts at COJ show there is money in the account, but there actually isn't. Some show projects have spent money, when they actually haven't. Some capital improvement projects show they spent x amount of dollars, when they actually spent more than x amount of dollars. Some worthwhile CIP projects were dropped, while other marginally important CIP projects were added. Meanwhile, borrowing against the banking fund (which is the credit card COJ uses to float capital improvement projects, which for the past few years has actually been used to balance the budget instead of funding CIP projects) keeps increasing. That's a pretty messy picture (and unsustainable to say the least).

Say you had a job making $40k/yr, then got laid off and took a job making $28k/yr and supplemented your expenses by using your credit cards.  You charged $25k each of the last two years to those credit cards. Meanwhile your house needs a new roof that will cost $6k. You showed you had $4k in your checking account and $2k in a savings account and the roofer needs $3,400 deposit to start repairing your leaky roof... but you suddenly bounced a check when you went to pay the roofer. At that point, the wise thing to do would be to step back and figure out what the heck is going on and completely re-examine your entire financial picture. What expenses do you really need to pay for (do I really need to keep charging $6k a year to my credit card for new clothes when my car needs $2k in repairs)? Why does my checking account show $4k but I can't cover a check for $3,400... and why doesn't my $2k savings account draw against the difference (my savings account acts as my overdraft according to the bank, what gives)?  Should I really be taking on more credit card debt, or do I need to take a part time job for a second source of income?     Certainly, the answer shouldn't be to continue with business as usual, because something is obviously very wrong.

That's what Boyer, Crescimbini, et al are doing. Not sure how that can be criticized. That's just basic governance. Closing your eyes and continuing to shuffle curtains is not how to run your personal life, nonethless one of the largest municipal budgets in the country. 

I actually like Lori Boyer and think she really does want to do a good job.  Doesn't change the fact that she has had to learn how things work.  If you haven't seen what I am talking about, you have your head in the sand.

In your scenario above, the 4K and the 2K were actually once there.  You still show it to hide the fact you spent it on on-line gambling or that sexy call girl.  That 6K for clothes, it wasn't for you, but your mistress.  Of course, you are doing your best to hide all that from your wife. You don't have to figure much out, you already know all about it.  You are really just trying to see how you can spin it and still get away with your bad behavior.  That is a more accurate comparison to this city.

[I-10east]

IMO far as running the basic operations of a city, for the most part we are getting by okay right now. When it comes to the bold downtown redevelopment plans, improvements to urban parks and roads etc, without any raising of any taxes we will continue to be stagnated. 

[vicupstate]

IMO far as running the basic operations of a city, for the most part we are getting by okay right now. When it comes to the bold downtown redevelopment plans, improvements to urban parks and roads etc, without any raising of any taxes we will continue to be stagnated. 

I'd say there is a big fail on both parts. The pension fiasco is preventing getting the ship righted on any front.

[Noone]

Bold leadership by the City Council.

I have to disagree.  Councilwoman Lori Boyer is actually going through decades worth of less than impressively-managed capital improvement projects and monies right now with a fine tooth comb. So much of that money has been transferred between accounts, swept away among changing political whims, spent whether it was actually there or not or simply vanished into thin air (with lots of inter-department finger pointing). She is doing the only real comprehensive fiscal management of the CIP money that has been done in years. If you look beyond the TU headline and have seen what she and others like John Crescimbini have accomplished first hand... it's really been some of the boldest work City Council has done in over a decade.

Boyer and Crescimbini have both been very impressive with their hawkish focus on this issue. They are rolling up their sleeves to try to get things right.. when a lot of this money has been allowed to be steered aimlessly among a sea of lax fiscal management.

Boyer has been impressive. When she was on Waterways she left the meeting to run upstairs and returned to show the Jacksonville Waterways Commissioners of a bait and switch move by the administration on a Backroom FIND project. Our property tax money. can't make this stuff up. Who should be fired not promoted?

As for the CIP this community also has to give super props to Connie Benham candidate for Dist.6 against Matt Schellenburg for pointing out the CIP and Banking Fund for years at city council meetings. Talk about hawkish. Crescimbeni is out with term limits but with Boyer Dist. 5 and and Benham Dist.6 on the council. WOW! Talk about some double B's (Budget Busters).

[heights unknown]

So does this mean that Jacksonville is going to sit stagnant, and if any projects come in that require city funding, they won't get off the ground because of no funds or the lack of funds?