I would love to kill two birds with one stone. Raise money to fill the budget gap and make our city safer. Just put speed cameras and red light cameras all over the city. I know the politics of speed cameras are bad, especially if one leans into the revenue aspect ("cash grab") but in this budget there will be bad politics no matter where you look. Raising property taxes is much worse than fining reckless drivers.
Pulling forward future recurring revenue by selling the assets, then spending the proceeds, has pushed up the spending expectation and put off prudent spending cuts and budget discipline.
Deals like selling the parking concession instead of leasing it or the plan to sweep the accrued balances in the several TIF districts relieve pressure on the officeholders today but leave a mess when they get voted out as finances circle the drain. Such bill paying strategies should be illegal.
I would love to kill two birds with one stone. Raise money to fill the budget gap and make our city safer. Just put speed cameras and red light cameras all over the city. I know the politics of speed cameras are bad, especially if one leans into the revenue aspect ("cash grab") but in this budget there will be bad politics no matter where you look. Raising property taxes is much worse than fining reckless drivers.
Have only recently found this substack, wanted to just say what a great resource these posts are. Extremely approachable for a total layman (me).
Pulling forward future recurring revenue by selling the assets, then spending the proceeds, has pushed up the spending expectation and put off prudent spending cuts and budget discipline.
Deals like selling the parking concession instead of leasing it or the plan to sweep the accrued balances in the several TIF districts relieve pressure on the officeholders today but leave a mess when they get voted out as finances circle the drain. Such bill paying strategies should be illegal.