Mac has made the Financial Advisory Committee’s recommendations available at his site. Spoiler alert! This post contains the money quote (heh), from FAC member Tom Teresinski. Tom Teresinski Overview – A Perspective I. Spending – Per City Report: (000) General Fund – Spending (1998): $14,535.8; (2009) $28,167.0 % Growth: 93.8 Avg % Increase 0ver 11…
Category: Payment Due?
Mac’s Budget Recommendations
Click here for one Financial Advisory Committee member’s recommendations for DeKalb’s FY2009 budget. Then comment, here and/or at Mac’s.
FPC Bombshell
The Facilities Planning Committee began planning “Phase II” of the school construction plan last night, but I could not concentrate. Part of it was brain-deadness because these meetings run too darn long, part of it was shock. Here’s why: No matter what we do to cut construction costs, we will still not come under the…
Note from Ivan on the Cop Shop
Update: The meeting dates for the Police Facility Advisory Committee are Wednesday, June 11; Thursday, June 19; and Thursday, June 26; all at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers. [Once again, Ivan Krpan brings us one of his “comments”–this time on the city’s advisory committee for the new police station–that should have been a post in…
The Absurdity of the Airport, & Other Budget Tales
Tonight at the budget workshop I remarked that it was kind of nonsensical and backwards (exact words) to continue to carry this albatross of an airport (paraphrase) when the police department does not have adequate facilities. Later in the evening, I was rebutted with a pretty picture presented by Public Works Director Rick Monas of…
District 428 & the Grassroots: Yeah, Right: Part 1
So last month I e-mailed the members of the District 428 school board a link to the great precast discussion (vs. bricks-and-mortar construction on the new high school and Cortland elementary school) we were having here at CityBarbs, in view of the debate we were so sure would occur soon at a Facilities Planning Committee…
Skating Rink Tearing Me Apart
On the one hand, the city’s shelling out $75,000 for a skating rink (p. 9) seems frivolous and inappropriate in view of the recent two tax increases, an impending big rise in water rates Monday, and a few more tax hikes coming down the pike shortly. (Not even a kiss first!) So, maybe I should…
The Fatal Flaw in Home Rule Law
[This is the 2nd part of a series examining home rule in Illinois. The first one is here.] Municipal home rule powers are granted by the Illinois Constitution. Except as limited by this Section, a home rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs including, but not…
Enviro Woman & Building Schools
The intention is to begin attending DeKalb School District 428’s Facilities Planning Committee (FPC) meetings despite harboring doubts that a non-construction type could contribute much to the discussion. But now the thought occurs: Send Enviro Woman! She’ll know what to say! Such as, “LEED, or get out of the way!” Take the case of the…
We are Cannibals
Our property taxes are becoming too burdensome to bear. Yet we can’t pay for our schools. We’ve invented impact fees to pay for our schools but that increases the cost of our homes, which leads to higher property taxes once again. We homeowners get stuck coming and going. In effect, we’re cannibalizing ourselves to make…