As we move toward this year’s mayoral election, all citizens should review the financial policies of the current administration.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the election in 2005, our mayor terminated the four-year budget project process. As a result, a totally unrealistic outlook has dominated the budget process for the city of Kent.<\/p>\n
This has, and will, result in more city workers losing their jobs and city services being reduced. A large portion of this could have been avoided by sound budget management.<\/p>\n
Consider:<\/p>\n
1. The proposed 2009 budget projected a 9 percent increase in sales-tax revenue compared to 2008. Unrealistic given the known state of the economy.<\/p>\n
2. The latest financial projections by the administration require $1.97 million of sales-tax revenue in each of the last five months of 2009, compared to the average of $1.17 million in each of the first seven months. A 68 percent increase.<\/p>\n
3. The latest financial projections require $4.1 million in savings, but have plans for $1.7 million. Suspension of two months of health-care premiums account for $1.2 million of these “savings.”<\/p>\n
4. The city has spent $9.7 million more than they have taken in for the first seven months. The general fund balance is now a negative $1.7 million.<\/p>\n
5. Based on current trends, the fund balance will be a negative $4.6 million instead of the positive $6.5 million presented to the Council on Aug. 27.<\/p>\n
In a recent communication to city employees, the administration describes the necessity of having a substantial general fund balance. It acts as a reserve to fund monthly variations in revenue, and to cover unplanned events such as flood clean-up and repair. The current negative fund balance, and projections of it worsening, is a disaster waiting to happen.<\/p>\n
The example set by the mayor’s office is a poor one. The budget for her office is $2.7 million, compared to $1.7 million in 2006, a 59 percent increase.<\/p>\n
Capable budget management and timely action by the mayor could have prevented a majority of the layoffs that will now be necessary.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Denton Hanford<\/p>\n
Kent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we move toward this year’s mayoral election, all citizens should review the financial policies of the current administration.
\nShortly after the election in 2005, our mayor terminated the four-year budget project process. As a result, a totally unrealistic outlook has dominated the budget process for the city of Kent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-7497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7497"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}