In the listening sessions hosted by Racine Mayor Gary Becker recently, the Mayor stated that there will be a one million dollar surplus as a result of city departments not increasing their budgets (zero dollar increase budgeting). The Mayor asked those in attendance, “how should the money be spent?” It seems it never occurred to him to not spend it! Maybe it also never occurred to him just whose money it was he was so anxious to spend.
Wouldn’t it be a great idea if he were to provide some property tax relief to the property taxpayers of the City of Racine by keeping that cool million in the treasury? Particularly property tax relief for those who seldom use city services.
The Mayor went on to say that more city positions would be cut. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, the cuts are all retiree positions, where the position is vacated and never filled. But at least they are cuts in that new people are not hired for those positions.
Retirement and health care benefits continue to be a sore spot in budgeting. As long as those expenses continue to rise, zero budget increases will come at the expense of reduced services. One outcome of this budget cleansing maneuver will be a disclosure of all those “services” that we could have done well without all these many years.
