Final Budget

At tomorrow night's City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting, the budget and the millage levy will be approved for the final time. From what we can tell, it will pass because there are few ideas on what to do to reduce the budget any further and raising taxes is so much easier. Don't get use wrong, the WayneWho staff thinks that this budget should be passed on Tuesday night because it is a good budget based on the framework the City Manager allowed the commission to discuss it. Basically our issue is that the budgets are falsley decided upon based on a set of presentations that do not connect with each other and do not address the overall effect of all of the tax/fee increases added together. We do not agree with the piecemeal approach of local governments in approving tax and fee increases to end up meeting budgets that are also viewed and discussed in a piecemeal fashion. Our reason is that when the pieces are finally put together, there is little room for discussion on what budget item should be cut because each little piece seemingly affects some other part of the budget. This leaves commissioners, and the general public, confused about what suggestions to make to reduce the overall budget. And while the Mayor likes to treat residents like they are stupid when they ask for a full accounting of the budget by saying it can be found online, this is not 100% true. While this years proposed budget for the City of Kissimmee is one of the best we have seen for specifics, it is far from a complete breakdown. In the City Manager's department alone there is over $76,000 of expenses attributed to the mysterious category of 'Other.' Oh wait, we were actually wrong on that. If you flip a few more pages you will find that there is another 'Other' expense for $500,000 for the City Manager's Department under the title of 'General Government'. That means we now have $576,000 in total unknown 'Other' budgeted expenses. Add that to the $290,000 for special events and social service funding and we are getting close to cutting $1,000,000 which could easily translate into either less of an increase in taxes and fees or maybe no increase at all. Our suggestion to those who might want to stand up at the podium to be treated like they are stupid by our Mayor, tell him and the other commissioners to cut all funding in every department to the mystical 'Other' categories. Cutting all the funding to 'Other' categories is the only way to be sure we get them all since they are hidden amongst all the pages of the budget.

Regardless of all of this, our suggestion for the City is to approve the budget and the millage as stated. Then, next week, start working on the budget for next year. Drop all your estimates on revenue by at least 10% because next year will be worse for government than this year was. Also, expect that gasoline prices will rise by at least 5% which will effect other costs of goods. Take these basics into account and start over. This time don't just look at the presentations, look at each department, each person, and every dollar to determine if we are still operating in the best way for our citizens. Verify that it still makes sense to have government doing the jobs that private companies could be doing. Justify everything and give the public a true detailed report of every dime. We feel that next year will not only be worse, but that governments who raised taxes this year will not be able to do it again. Raising taxes and fees will not fix everything.