Budget Bust

The Official Unofficial Minutes of the WL BOA
2 October

The proposed 2013 City budget got voted down by a 3-1 margin last night, which clearly irked a frustrated Mayor Bos.  The Public Hearing on the budget started at 6:30 and was rather benign with a couple of questions and comments from the public (ok, it was me, there were two other citizens in attendance), and a short back and forth with me in the Mayor regarding trash and recycling revenue.  Other than that, looked like it was smooth sailing for the BOA to formalize the budget during the BOA meeting which started shortly after 7PM.

Nope.

The budget was brought up for a BOA vote.  When discussion was opened I anticipated there would be no comments, budget adopted, next item.  Instead Alderman DeJong brought up his concerns regarding the calculation of the revenue projected for Water, particularly in regards to water rates.  "They will go berserk over the 39% increase" DeJong remarked.  The "they" would be you my friends, as you received your first post increase water bill.  This followed by a long interchange between the two and dueling figures galore.  Bos posed the proposed rate as a 12% increase, while DeJong demonstrated the arithmetic did not work.  Part of the calculations revolved around projected water usage, Bos using a figure of 70 million gallons for 2013.  The final figure for 2012 might be as high as "75, 76, 77, million gallons" said Jerry.  The budget in 2012 used the figure of 55 million gallons, a recent historical number.  This year's unprecedented drought certainly came into play.

Tomorrow: Water Boarding