Tag: new budget

I Finally Got The New Budget. Here Are Some Highlights…

First some salary and benefits numbers:

Total City salaries for FY 2022: $6.012 million

Total City salaries for FY 2024: $7.384 million

Two-year increase in salaries: 23%

Total City benefits for FY 2022: $2.531 million

Total City benefits for FY 2024: $3.221 million

Two-year increase in benefits: 27%

Combined salary and benefits for current fiscal year: $10.605 million– first year EVER over $10 million. Assuming 116 employees, this works out to $91,422 on average for every single City employee. Obviously some people at the top (like Finley) get almost triple that figure.

Combined salary and benefits increase over two years: 24.1%

Tax revenues UP 8% from $4.865 million to $5.251 million (this could have been reduced by lowering the tax rate…but it wasn’t) – the City siphoning almost $400,000 more out of the citizens compared to last year.

Don’t forget – the Feds dropped almost TWO MILLION DOLLARS into the laps of City government over the last couple years with their “Covid Relief” bullshit, and they STILL need to soak you harder!

IT Department UP 8.4% over last year. IT “contract services” line item UP a massive 29% year-over-year from $40,000 to $51,684. Pretty sure this is where they pay other companies like TSM Consulting to do the work that Monica and Kristy should be doing but can’t/won’t.

More to come….

Proposed 2019/2020 Budget Sees IT Department Spending Jump 24%

The IT Department was budgeted $301,143 in the 2018/2019 budget. The new 2019/2020 proposed budget sees that skyrocket 24% to $374,346!! By all means, reward the department that just fell victim to a massive cyber attack…that’s how it works in government.

[For reference, the IT budget was $213,336 back in the 2014/2015 budget – a mere 5 years ago….a total increase of 75% (or 15% per YEAR)]

It appears all my screaming has fallen on deaf ears. What is driving this year’s massive increase in spending? Thankfully not salaries and benefits. Those are barely budging. Small victories.

No, that massive $73,000 increase shows up in two spots:

“Supplies” [line item 5200] is increasing from $63,751 to a whopping $116,758!! A massive $53,000 (83%) increase. I can’t wait to see what THAT gigantic expenditure is….could they already be budgeting in a large ransom payment for the recent cyber attack debacle??

“Maintenance” [line item 5400] is nearly TRIPLING from $12,675 to $37,904. A $26,000 (200%) increase. Another one I can’t wait to see details on….maybe this is payment to the REAL computer experts who had to come in and clean up the mess after the recent successful cyber attacks?? God only knows.

Spending by year in the IT Department (nearly $1.9 million total!)

  • 2019: $374,346 (proposed)
  • 2018: $317,143
  • 2017: $285,727
  • 2016: $277,267
  • 2015: $263,754
  • 2014: $213,366
  • 2013: $179,600

Where has this nearly TWO MILLION DOLLARS gone over the last seven years? Clearly not towards any kind of security infrastructure or up-to-date security training for our two IT ‘experts’.