{"id":317,"date":"2012-07-04T11:26:35","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T15:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daveemanuel.wordpress.com\/?p=317"},"modified":"2014-10-24T14:13:42","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T18:13:42","slug":"the-latest-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=317","title":{"rendered":"The Latest- Budget Confidential"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Beauty is in the Balance\u2014Snellville\u2019s 2013 Budget<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

Last Friday night, the majority of Council approved a budget that demonstrates the type of financial responsibility that is rarely found in government. It has always been my philosophy that government should be run like a business and that the taxpayers are both customers and shareholders. This budget is consistent with that philosophy; it will deliver excellent value to our \u201ccustomers\u201d, and provide maximum return on investment to our \u201cshareholders\u201d. During the 2013 fiscal year (which began July 1st<\/sup>) Snellville citizens will see a reduction in taxes, and an improvement in services.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons this budget has such an attractive tax component is that Snellville\u2019s tax digest (the overall value of real estate within the city limits) has not had the predicted drop in value. While many other cities in Gwinnett County saw a 7-8% drop in digest values, Snellville\u2019s tax digest dropped only 6\/10s of one percent. (That\u2019s clearly the result of the positive changes that have occurred within the city during the past two years.)<\/p>\n

But this being Snellville, the budget was predictably a source of controversy and a platform for political posturing. After all the time we spent trying to reach a consensus, I found it very disappointing that issues which had been resolved, were positioned front and center in an apparent attempt to discredit a budget that was developed specifically to minimize the financial burden on taxpayers.<\/p>\n

In essence, we have become involved in a semantics tango that has been escalated into a war dance by Council members of opposing opinions, and by staff members who chose to make ill-advised and defamatory comments. One of the dances swirls around controversy regarding a $16,900 expense to repair a damaged pavilion in Briscoe Park. The damage occurred, and the insurance company\u2019s +\/-$16,000 payment for repairs was received in a previous fiscal year.<\/p>\n

Those repairs will be made during the 2013 fiscal year, (the reasons for such a lengthy delay are another story for another time) so costs must either be incorporated in the budget, or authorized through a subsequent budget amendment. Any expenditure incorporated in a budget must be offset by an equal amount of revenue, which is primarily derived from property taxes. If pavilion repair costs are simply included as an expense, those costs will be paid out of tax revenues. That\u2019s not fair to the taxpayers because the city has already collected the insurance company\u2019s payment.<\/p>\n

The fiscally responsible approach is to transfer the money from the city\u2019s reserve account prior to, or at the same time the expenditure is added. By so doing, the expense is tax revenue neutral. This is the approach approved by the majority of Council, (both with the pavilion repairs and with LCI project cost overruns) but it is up to city accounting staff to implement it in a manner that conforms with approved governmental and accounting practices. (Ironically, the City of Suwanee, faced with virtually the same circumstances, took the same approach as the one approved by the majority of Snellville\u2019s council.)<\/p>\n

I can only speculate as to the reason a member of staff has publicly stated that the approved budget contains \u201cmaterial misrepresentations\u201d. If in fact any such misrepresentations exist, they would be a consequence of staff not properly executing its role in budget preparation.<\/p>\n

So while the semantics tango\/war dance continues, Snellville taxpayers will be enjoying a beautiful budget that enables the city to deliver one of the highest levels of service in Gwinnett County while paying lower taxes than they did last year. That\u2019s enough to make you kick up your heels and dance.<\/p>\n

Just like they\u2019re doing in Suwanee.<\/p>\n

—————<\/h2>\n

Much Ado About Nothing- Snellville<\/a>‘s “Proposed” Gun Ban<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>The subject of gun control always incites lively discussions and Ed Stone’s Examiner article, “Snellville Considers Gun Ban” (http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/article\/snellville-considers-gun-ban<\/a>) is no exception. However, aside from philosophical differences, there’s no real basis for that discussion. “Snellville”, (which I assume to mean the City Council) is NOT considering a gun ban in any shape or form. Aside from the fact that enacting such a ban would be a violation of state law<\/a>, it would never receive the votes necessary for passage; a sufficient number of Council members believe in the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

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As a member of that Council, I was not aware of any discussion about guns until I received the agenda for the June 11th meeting. Under the work session portion of that agenda, item “e” was listed as “Firearms<\/a> in city Parks [Kautz]”. Considering the recent incident in Sugar Hill, and the obvious widespread confusion about firearms laws, my expectation was that we would be discussing the city\u2019s responsibility to honor Constitutional rights and the need to ensure that both citizens and city staff understand state firearms laws. I was more than surprised when the mayor, herself an attorney, referred the matter to our City Attorney for review prior to pursuing the issue. Such a referral serves no useful purpose as state law is quite clear- it is illegal for municipalities to enact firearms ordinances that preempt state law.<\/p>\n

There was in fact, no consideration of a gun ban of any type, only a unilateral request by the mayor to pursue the issue. I can\u2019t speak for other Council members regarding this issue, but there is absolutely no question that Bobby Howard and Diane Krause, and Mayor Pro Tem Tom Witts are as determined as I am to protect and defend our Constitutional rights, and to ensure that all proposed city ordinances do not violate state law.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0article above also appears on examiner.com)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

And Still More Adventures in City Attorney Land<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In spite of rumors to the contrary, there are no plans to install a revolving door at Snellville City Hall. However, it has been reported that the revolving doors at area restaurants are now being referred to as \u201cAttorney Doors\u201d. Continue Reading <\/a><\/p>\n

More Adventures in City Attorney Land<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If you read \u201cAdventures in City Attorney Land\u201d, parts 1 and Deux, you\u2019re probably wondering why you haven\u2019t heard about the final resolution to Snellville\u2019s \u201cNot So Excellent Adventure\u201d. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

Introducing– The SWILs<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

At the April 9th Council meeting, I introduced a new word that will help people understand the source of some of the more sleazy aspects of Snellville politics. That word is SWIL, which is an acronym for\u00a0 Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

A Retreat, A Boot & A Wart<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Last week was a busy one for members of the Snellville<\/a> City Council. On Saturday, (3\/24) we held our retreat\u00a0 at the Evergreen Center in Stone Mountain and discussed a number of subjects related to the Council and the city. Moderator Murray Weed of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government<\/a> did an excellent job leading the discussions and providing insight.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

Political Commentary<\/em><\/h2>\n

For Race Baiters, Saving Lives Just Doesn’t Pay<\/strong><\/em>
\nTragic. There is truly no other word for it. Yet a m\u00e9lange of other words has pre-empted \u201ctragic\u201d in commentary about the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Beauty is in the Balance\u2014Snellville\u2019s 2013 Budget Last Friday night, the majority of Council approved a budget that demonstrates the type of financial responsibility […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Latest- Budget Confidential - 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