Life Of Jason

Click here to head to the City’s website to look at the proposed budget for 2008-2009.

You’ll need to download all three PDFs to see the entire budgeting process. There’s a lot to go through and I haven’t had time to search to find all the little things that are in this big document.

I received an e-mail today from Fred Ellison of the Missouri Liberty Coalition regarding the $758,000 “surplus” in the budget after all the proposed cuts would be put into effect. First, I’ll post his letter unedited and then my thoughts on it.

“Dear Mayor and Council Members:

The purpose of this letter is to assist you in evaluating several choices that are available for the extra $ 758,200 that may be created by the 7% budget reductions.

The first point that I would like to make is that the proposed $ 5,200,000 extra contribution that you are planning to make to the Police and Fire Pension Fund during the 2008-2009 Fiscal Year is only a band-aid being put on a gapping wound and is still $ 1,300,000 less than the amount that you have failed to contribute over the last three years. At the end of the current fiscal year, you will have cost the Pension Fund about $ 800,000 in potential earnings on the accumulated $ 6,500,371 under contribution.

The initial suggestion that comes to mind would be to contribute the additional $ 758,200 to the Pension Fund. The long-term impact of this decision would be to provide about $ 6,638,000 of earnings for the payment of benefits during the next 30 years. (If the amount of the additional contribution is $ 467,700, the additional earnings will be about $ 4,094,000.)

Another suggestion that was made last Tuesday, at the budget session, was using the $ 758,200 to restore approximately 15-18 positions in the Police and Fire Departments. The impact of increasing Pension Plan participant wages by about $ 575,000 will result in about $235,000 per year (for the next 3-5 years) in employee and employer contributions. If a permanent solution to the unfunded liability in the Pension Fund is achieved after three to five years, the additional contributions will probably decline to about $ 135,000 per year for subsequent years. The long-term financial impact on the Pension Fund of restoring these positions will be to provide about $18,650,000 for the payment of benefits during the next 30 years.

Therefore, from a strictly financial perspective, the most prudent decision will be to use the full $758,200 for restoring positions in the police and fire departments. This is also in the best interests of the health and safety of the citizens of Springfield. Another, often overlooked, consideration is the impact that the current understaffing of the police and fire department will have on insurance ratings and ultimately insurance rates in the City of Springfield.

The decisions that you are making have much greater implications than you might ever imagine. If the City Council cannot be trusted to keep its commitments to city employees, why would the citizens of Springfield feel that City Council should be trusted on other matters?”

My first thought is that last line was completely unnecessary or should have been worded in a less combative way.  That’s just personal preference…I’d like to see someone build their case without a shot at the Council members.

Up to that point, he built a very solid case for taking that money and putting it where he had suggested in his plan.   I’m all in favor of restoring positions to the police and fire departments who could really use the additional officers and firefighters.  It’s a good plan and one that should be given serious consideration.