In a new web video, East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker breaks down the mayor’s proposed $486.8 million budget and says the city is going about it all wrong.
In a 9‑minute video he posted to YouTube on Monday, Elicker uses graphs and pie charts to patiently explain what goes into the crafting the annual city budget.
Click the play arrow to watch.
Each year, Elicker says, the public debate about the budget focuses on the general fund — the day-to-day immediate expenses that keep the city functioning. That’s a misguided approach, he says in the video. The city needs to take a longer view and look at what big capital spending projects will mean in terms of increases in debt payments in the years to come.
If the city had done that 10 years ago, when debt service, medical benefits and pensions were only 23 percent of the budget, those items might not be up to 35 percent now, Elicker argues. If they had stayed constant at 23 percent, the city would have an extra $62 million on hand right now.
“But we didn’t do that in 2001,” Elicker says in the video. “Why don’t we do it today, so that in 2016 or 2021 we have a fiscally healthy city and some money in the bank?”
The mayor’s proposed budget this year includes borrowing $78 million in capital funds, largely to pay for school construction projects, Elicker says. “Seventy-eight million is larger than any capital expenditure in the last decade. What is this going to do to our debt payments down the road?”
It’s not a simple problem, Elicker acknowledges. And the city has benefited from borrowing in the past, with beautiful new schools, for instance.
“The important thing is balance,” he says. “It’s time we came back into balance.”
It’s time people stop focusing so much on items like library hours and the annual Christmas tree, which account for only a fraction of the budget each year, Elicker says.
“It’s time we address the systematic long-term problems in our budget and embrace a long-term vision for the city,” he concludes.
Elicker does not say in the video specifically what “embrace” would mean in terms of actual changes to the proposed budget currently before the Board of Aldermen’s Finance Committee.
WONDERFUL CREATION MR. EICKLER.