Monday's Council Meeting

At best this will be brief. I can't write shorthand, and certainly am not a court stenographer so I have to dash down notes in that well know doctor's handwriting, which even I can't decipher. For a lucid report please read Plaintalker.

Monday night the Council approved the sending out of an estimated first and second quarter calender year tax bill. This is actually the third (and fourth) quarter of the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Of the three items that make up the bill, the School Tax and County tax portions will have to be based on the 2008 bills perhaps with some e minor adjustments. The estimated city tax will be done after the state aid is determined which may be by 12/31/08. This has been about 40% of the funds needed.

City Administrator Deshield gave a power point presentation describing where the revenues come from. If I heard right, in 2008 $48 mil. were from taxes, and 40% of the remainder funds of approximately $23 mil.was in state aid. Since approximately 15% of the city's revenues come from state allocations which are not made until late December would it not be logical to revert to the calender year for our fiscal year? Or is it to our benefit to make things complicated?

It would be my guess that this year the total raised by taxes at the same rate of 2008 could be substantially less and state aid may well be significantly less. Thus the true impact on our tax bill will not be known before Jan.1,2009.

At the public portion of the meeting mention was made of a possible Health care forum.hopefully with Sen Daschle the to be Obama's secretary Of Health. The subject would be centered on the acute care crisis in this city.

Besides the usual small group of public commentators, members of CBAC were out in force to present their side of the misunderstanding over their report. I hope that in the next budget process a well defined advisory committee will be able to participate.

Council President Gibson in his farewell remarks noted the economic problems facing all communities and that "cuts" will have to be made. He, correctly, urged that it not be at the expense of our core safety departments, Police and Fire. The 2009 Council should heed him.

This marked Councilman Davis, and Council President Gibson's last meeting. They tried to the best of their abilities to serve the city well.That is all we can ask of our elected public servants, . The 2009 Council should also be very interesting and I hope that there is greater public interest.

PMUA has scheduled a meeting Jan 20,2009 at 6pm- very convenient for the public- to discuss rate changes. With a crash in the recycle markets, a marked increase is inevitable.