Friday, May 11, 2012
Nicholas D. Mercier speaks out against council actions
" The administration trumpeted its support for our children and education when it increased their funding by less than 1%. Meanwhile, within the Mayor's budget, the Public Library has had it's budget cut by over 30%. What is the most reprehensible part about this travesty is that the Mayor hid these cuts by consolidating the budget of the Public Library, the Youth Museum and two other entities into a single line item.
This administration speaks of supporting education, and then does the exact opposite. This administration speaks of transparency, and then releases a budget that is so opaque it makes the budgets put forward by Dr. Kurtz crystal clear. One can only wonder what other "nuggets" are waiting to be discovered if the Common Council foolishly accepts what the Mayor has proposed whole cloth and passes his budget. "
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18 comments:
they wouldn't be Democrats if they told the truth--about anything. That his how you can tell a Democrat is lying--his lips are moving!
Nick,
Funny hearing criticism coming from you Nick. The cuts being proposed are drastic in nature. The council has to consider them because there is a need to fill a $30 million dollar deficit. One, that as BOF official you helped create this mess, you said nothing as it grew, and now you protest the very people trying to fix the problem you helped create. Shameful.
If this deficit is real,why was it not noticed in the passed? Every council members recieves a proposed budget before the budget is passed. This gives them the opportunity to speak with the department heads directly and discuss their problems and needs. As a past, one term council member I asked questions. I did not agree with the budget and I voted no. Problems need to be ironed out before you pass the budget. Remember over the passed eight years the Democrats controlled the council, Why was do diligents not used, this is one of their favorite terms.
Wait a minute.... what is the actual deficit amount? Is it eleven million or thirty million?
With a deficit so large, 11 or 30 at what point is the cities balance at zero or in the red and overdrawn?
We keep hearing about the deficit and now big cuts but I keep imagining that soon, very soon, or yesterday, payroll will be on hold. When does payroll go on hold? Are the utility bills getting paid? Do we have gas for the police vehicles? Is the state coming to take our books over?
And who is making the accusation that volunteer BOF member created the mess? Really? A BOF member helped create a budget deficit.
And what about the council members that returned this year again and have been voting to pass the budgets year after year. Is this all news to them? One of them is Phil Sherwood himself. Phil was only gone for a short time. He looked over the budgets for several rounds? Then there is Adam and Mike and Roy and Larry and Eva, what has been going on? It is all Tim Stewart's fault and now Nick Mercier. You have got to be kidding.
Are paychecks going out this week? Has the BOE consolidated payroll services with the city side? Is the city payroll bi-weekly yet and is direct deposit required? Have we consolidated polling stations? Is the mayor's office on a reduced budget?
Make me sick this administration. They don't have any idea what their doing.
To Anonymous:
Every budget passed by the Board of Finance and Taxation was balanced. They often included tax increases because it was beyond our powers and prerogative to institute massive layoffs. To say that I helped "create" this deficit shows you have little to no understanding of the budget process as dictated by the charter. The budget passed two years ago was the Mayor's budget in the sense that he vetoed certain changes by the Council and they did not act to overturn his veto. The budget passed last year is the Council's, in that it was voted and approved by the Common Council and was enacted as they left it.
Each year on the Board of Finance and Taxation we worked to trim as much as humanly possible, while still maintaining vital services.
No where in my statement did I say that cuts were unavoidable. I am simply pointing out that the Mayor is hypocritical in his statements that he supports education but has brutally slashed funding to other educational institutions within our community. Furthermore, he is hypocritical in his cries for transparency while producing a budget that is obtuse and has less detail than anything ever presented to the Board of Finance and Taxation by any department, including the Board of Education.
Nick, you know darn well that when Stewart made proposed cuts he did NOT say where the cuts were other than 5% from parks, or 5% from Registrar....He never named which services would be cut.
Furthermore, when it came to revenue, he budgeted "workforce" savings. This implied givebacks, or someother savings from negotiations. Never said where, how or from whom. Where were your complaints then? Turns out that $4-6 million in savings, booked as revenue in STewarts budget, saved not 1 penny, but instead cost $4 million. That I'm told, and have read in the auditors report, is where at least $9 million of the deficit came from. The budget was balanced on paper....but paper is never real. Neither are you.
I respectfully disagree Nick. I don't think it is reprehensible as you say to consolidate. It should have been done long ago.
Additionally, you say he is not supporting kids. Really? The schools are getting an increase from the city side. Something Mr. Stewart rarely if ever did.
It seems that cuts have been made everywhere. Hopefully services aren't effected too much. The alternative to all these cuts, whether we agree with them or not, is that property taxes would have to go up by 1/3 to restore all of them. Is that what we want? Hell no, and we should give the mayor credit for that.
Lastly, he is accused of being a labor ally, yet he is talking about layoffs and actually mentioning numbers. Seems to me he is doing what needs to be done; granted, many of us may be surprised by that. But the facts are the facts. Stewart raised salaries, increased spending, and held the line on taxes. Guess what, after a while, that just doesn't work.
Giving the schools a $500,000 increase while cutting the Youth Museum and Public Library by a combined total of more than $1,000,000 is hardly putting "education first". In both budgets put forward by the Board of Finance and Taxation we recommended increases to the education grant without slashing the public library funding.
To say that I wasn't critical of some elements of the former Mayor's budget is also incorrect. You still seem to be ignoring the fact that the budgets for the past 8 years were all passed by a Democratic super-majority. As others have pointed out the Council even added to the figures that they later complained about, such as sale of property.
I might even support this Mayor's budget if he had made it at all transparent. There is a difference between specify an amount that you assume you will receive from labor concessions and to say that you are going to restructure the entire municipal government and eliminate over a hundred positions without a plan.
Come July 1st under the Mayor's budget departments will not know who is employed and who is not. Individual sections of government within a consolidated department will have no idea how to create, process, or fund payroll. There is no plan. That is an issue.
Nick. You say the last budgets were balanced. They weren't. Read the audit online. They say they weren't balanced as the revenue never came in by the time the books closed. They never put money in the insurance fund. They never got a check for pinnacle. IF they had it might almost be balanced. But the labor savings in the balanced budget never came through. You can blame the council for that too (that is $10 million worth in the deficit) but they have no say in negotiations.
The independent audit said they weren't balanced, according to the Moody's report alson on the city website, they said they were running deficits the last couple of years. Just because BOB CURRY who no longer is at city hall produced reports for Tim Stewart saying there was a surplus does not make it fact.
Also, have you seen the actuary reports for the negociated union contracts? The contracts that stewart told the council would save $6 million? NO YOU DIDN'T because the actuaries never looked at the new contracts!!! If they had they would have told the truth that the contracts cost money and that the budget was not in the red. Stewart new this, and wanted to keep the appearance of a balanced budget. That action alone, according to the auditors ads up to $10 million of the deficit.
Anonymous said...
Nick. You say the last budgets were balanced. They weren't. Read the audit online. They say they weren't balanced as the revenue never came in by the time the books closed. They never put money in the insurance fund. They never got a check for pinnacle. IF they had it might almost be balanced. But the labor savings in the balanced budget never came through. You can blame the council for that too (that is $10 million worth in the deficit) but they have no say in negotiations.
The independent audit said they weren't balanced, according to the Moody's report alson on the city website, they said they were running deficits the last couple of years. Just because BOB CURRY who no longer is at city hall produced reports for Tim Stewart saying there was a surplus does not make it fact.
Also, have you seen the actuary reports for the negociated union contracts? The contracts that stewart told the council would save $6 million? NO YOU DIDN'T because the actuaries never looked at the new contracts!!! If they had they would have told the truth that the contracts cost money and that the budget was not in the red. Stewart new this, and wanted to keep the appearance of a balanced budget. That action alone, according to the auditors ads up to $10 million of the deficit.
May 12, 2012 12:58 PM
Now you are Attempting to blame Mr. Merci er for Anonymous said...
Nick. You say the last budgets were balanced. They weren't. Read the audit online. They say they weren't balanced as the revenue never came in by the time the books closed. They never put money in the insurance fund. They never got a check for pinnacle. IF they had it might almost be balanced. But the labor savings in the balanced budget never came through. You can blame the council for that too (that is $10 million worth in the deficit) but they have no say in negotiations.
The independent audit said they weren't balanced, according to the Moody's report alson on the city website, they said they were running deficits the last couple of years. Just because BOB CURRY who no longer is at city hall produced reports for Tim Stewart saying there was a surplus does not make it fact.
Also, have you seen the actuary reports for the negociated union contracts? The contracts that stewart told the council would save $6 million? NO YOU DIDN'T because the actuaries never looked at the new contracts!!! If they had they would have told the truth that the contracts cost money and that the budget was not in the red. Stewart new this, and wanted to keep the appearance of a balanced budget. That action alone, according to the auditors ads up to $10 million of the deficit.
May 12, 2012 12:58 PM
NOW YOU ARE TRYING TO BLAME MR. MERCIER FOR THE PINNICLE FIASCO WHEN YOU KNOW THAT SHERWOOD WAS CAUSE OF THAT ONE WITH HIS " WHERE THE BEEF REMARK"
Mayor Sherwood (the anonymous poster that has way too much information to be anybody else) -
Do you get your jollies going on this blog trying to wow people with your superior intelligence and enlightened point of view (that dripping noise is sarcasm).
You can't even allow one tiny bit of criticism (real or imagined) and are intolerant of other views - somthing you were quick to accuse Tim Stewart of.
I heard you went up to Pat Rukowski (library director) and lambasted her for addressing the Council on her budget cut. Shame on you. She has every right to speak her mind - in fact I would argue she has an obligation to those who use the library to do so.
You sir are a bully, plain and simple - but you are also a coward for coming on here (and in the Herald blog) and trying to browbeat those who disagree with you pretending to be a bystander to this sham of a local government.
Maybe if more people agreed with you, you would not have to resort to such petty tactics.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Nicholas D. Mercier speaks out against council act...":
Mayor Sherwood (the anonymous poster that has way too much information to be anybody else) -
Do you get your jollies going on this blog trying to wow people with your superior intelligence and enlightened point of view (that dripping noise is sarcasm).
You can't even allow one tiny bit of criticism (real or imagined) and are intolerant of other views - somthing you were quick to accuse Tim Stewart of.
I heard you went up to Pat Rukowski (library director) and lambasted her for addressing the Council on her budget cut. Shame on you. She has every right to speak her mind - in fact I would argue she has an obligation to those who use the library to do so.
You sir are a bully, plain and simple - but you are also a coward for coming on here (and in the Herald blog) and trying to browbeat those who disagree with you pretending to be a bystander to this sham of a local government.
Maybe if more people agreed with you, you would not have to resort to such petty tactics.
HEY PHIL WHERE'S THE BEEF???
Hey Phil , where the beef ? Or in this case your sack. Say your name. We all dare you ? You're a joke and a criminal !!!! Keep it up. Your day will come !!!!
The Revolution has begun
It's true, Phil Sherwood is an absolute bully plain and simple. One of these days Phil, it will all come crashing down, the sooner the better. Go back to Hartford, New Hampshire where ever it is just get lost.
"Speer Doll I" LOL
To the persob affiliated with this administration who claims to have all the information online you are full of it! Savings were negotiated with several city unions and included savings in this years budget. Fire department staffing levels were reduced saving the city close to !1m annually. Yes raises were given to unions who stepped up in the latter years but your ignorance of collective bargaining astounds me! Actuarial reports on contracts? Sounds to me like you are either Bob Curry or are drinking his koolaide. Any increases in healthcare costs were negated by the unfilling of jobs. You don't have to pay for people that are not working for you do you? Self insurance funds are ysed to pay for administrative costs as well as all claim costs for city employees. Your attempt to tank this fund so that you can be the guinea pig for your mentor Malloys plan at the state will only cost taxpayers millions in the future as you lost the autonomy of being self insured!
And if I read your stupid deficit reduction transfers correct, you used around $3m in savings from salaries within the existing budget after only six months of operations. Do the math! That number would have grown to six million by fiscal year end which is what was budgeted for wasn't it?
Seems to me that this administration doesn't even know how to sell anything just oppose things and blame others for their stupidity!
As for Stewart not supporting education? Are you kidding me? Check the budgets over his tenure and one will see that he increased funding every year and did more projects than his predecessor at the BOE! In fact a Bob Curry screw up added $3m to the schools one year but they will never tell you it was an increase.
Hey Phil, don't go away mad, just do us all a favor and go away!
Hey Philly boy. Oops Philly girl. Just go back to where you once came from. Or if you wait to long you'll be caught for what your doing. Just might be an investigation already (still) underway :)))
Now I know for sure that a village in New Hampshire is missing their idiot!
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