The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
The City Council's retreat on Tuesday began with fireworks but quickly settled into 6-1/2 hours of traditional discussions about goals, objectives and initiatives.
The meeting came one week after City Manager Jim Spore presented his budget proposal to the council, which called for a 3-cent tax rate increase. Since then, a majority of council members have said they wouldn't support it. Instead, some want to explore using city cash reserves to help balance the budget. The city and schools are facing a $111 million budget shortfall.
Retreats are forums for informal conversations on a wide range of topics, and no decisions are made.
Councilman Bob Dyer opened Tuesday's meeting by accusing Spore of manipulating the budget by recommending a tax rate increase.
"I can't tell you how much I resent that," Dyer said, adding he was tired of "smoke-and-mirrors budgets."
Other council members said it's Spore's job to recommend a budget to the City Council.
"It's our job to go through it and see if we agree with him," Vice Mayor Louis Jones said.
Spore said, "I deeply resent the comments Bob made. This budget has not been manipulated. I'm a little shocked, frankly, at some of the comments."
Dyer has frequently called for shrinking city government. On Tuesday he said, "I don't think we can do business as usual and expect to survive."
City Council members spent the rest of the day discussing items such as, the development of the Dome site, Town Center and a convention center hotel; all projects stalled by the economy; a new animal shelter; the city's strategic growth areas; transportation; employee pension plans; parking; LED signs; golf courses; sponsorship opportunities; how they interact with one another and the media; and whether city staffers should advocate for issues that come before the council.
Official budget deliberations will start at 3 p.m. Thursday with a public meeting at City Hall.
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
We can't afford Jim Spore and his surrogates anymore
Friends and fellow Beach neighbors, we can't afford the tax & spend/borrow & spend regime of City "Manager" Jim Spore and his senior "leadership team" anymore. We can't afford the business lobby's City Council anymore either. Guys like Towne Banker Will Sessoms that the business lobby spent over $600,000 to buy the Mayor's seat - a less than $40K a year job. We can't afford the massive size of our local city government anymore - and the benefits package is far too expensive and out of step with the cut backs made in the private sector. According to the city's own 5 year forcast, the city government has 20,981 employees. Only the military (21,375) and low paid "Retail Trade" (21,802) exceed 20K workers. The city's addiction expensive, big ticket DEVELOPER subsidies and the Oceanfront Corporate Welfare program continue to waste our tax dollars and fail to net a real return on investment (ROI). Oh sure, the City's slick talking points twist numbers to paint a rosy picture of ROI, but that's the work out sales pitch that rings hollow when we hear how the city "must" raise taxes and fees to continue their spending and "no lay off" policy.
Beating a dead horse
Perhaps you have noticed Al that your posts, like those of Bob O'Connor elsewhere, elicit little or no response. Kind of like tilting at windmills. First, no one argues that residential property makes up 85% of the tax base. But Al, everyone of those homeowners benefits from increased commercial development that increases the tax base but requires few if any services. Every bit of commercial development decreases the amount of real estate taxes that must be paid by homeowners. So while you continue to rant and rave about this ratio, the question is, why? Do you and your fellow members of the VBTA actually want to pay higher taxes? Do you want to stop PPVs which produce net income and reduce our real estate tax rates? Are you and your cohorts so blind that you can't see that your own policies actually contradict the actual mission of your organization?
Mike, you have submitted over 3000 Pilot blogs and you
literally have the gall to label my comments as rants! It seems like you enjoy foaming at the mouth starting with the fact that you have spewed at least 100 incoherent comments about John. Your denigration of folks generally has no standing because the subject matter is frequently supported by your contrived facts!.. Anyone reading your blog can sense your direction is to defame anyone who does not agree with both you and your controlling friend in City Hall. I support any commercial development but not the relentless subsidy that appears to exist with a few exclusive cronies.
Mike & 3000 blogs continued
The serious financial implications of retaining the most disproportionate residential tax base in the nation has NEVER been disclosed by City Hall. Neither is the fact that the monumental debt ceiling is attributable to 85% of the residential community. Same goes for the monumental debt service. Also did you know our same tax burdened residents also support 85% of all retail sales of almost $5 billion? Residents also finance most of the retail space in this City. The same households support most of the property tax which includes a monumental vehicle stock of 350,000 auto's, vans and trucks. How is it you never mention these major contribution to the General Fund? Based on the these inestimable contributions, don't you think it is time that residents receive a long overdue return on their investment? 987 aging neighborhoods continue to go untouched. street sweeping is confined to a few destinations including Town Center and the Resort Area. Residential revitalization and attention to the neighborhood infrastructure is far from balanced in this City and you do very little to address this gross inequity!
If!
If King Willie does not get his tax increase he will go home every night crying on his pillowl; his legacy will be in jeopardy.
Dyer is only catching on now?
All the city managers use smoke and mirror budgets around here. How do the councilmen thing the manager can come up with a million here and a million there when we have a natural disaster or a piece of property they want acquired, or a program's funds enhanced. The managers hide extra money in dept budgets knowing that positions will go unfilled, that projects will be delayed, that grants will come in to supplant budget funds....if I know this as a taxpayer, he surely should have. And all I have as a reference is the Va. Pilot for 30 years.
Where has Councilman Dyer's
Where has Councilman Dyer's indignation been when outrageous spending proposals were put on the table? This is temporary fiscal responsibility.
Low taxes means controlled spending....not just one year or two...but a continuous transparent strategy.
Kudos to Councilman Dyer
I appreciate Councilman Dyer's push to downsize city government in light of the economic realities we're in right now. Our federal government, city government, yea, our own personal bugets have to be trimmed or we'll never get out of this mess. We can either pay now and play later or play now and pay later. It's basic economics. We can't continue to deficit spend forever. It's time to reign in spending. Kudos to you Bob Dyer for having the guts to say what needs to be said, even if it's not popular and for calling people out that you feel may be trying to put another tax burden on the citizens of this city.
Fact
The City never has, nor will it ever, deficit spend. That's illegal, and the budget presented by the Manager is balanced.
Fact? Really? What about the VBDA? How many billions of debt?
Ohhhhhh, because the "City" uses the VBDA (Virginia Beach Development Authority) to launder and hide massive DEBT used for massive spending - mostly related to DEVELOPER welfare programs - ex-Ass. City Manager Barrett trots out another half "truth" (fact) intended to misrepresent that whole truth. The whole truth is that the hundreds of millions in bond DEBT laundered through the VBDA winds up with an ever growing "debt service" bill that results in the "City's" inability to reduce the tax rate as it should when residential home values exceed a reasonable percentage of increases as related to the CBI (Consumer Price Index). Sure, the "budgets" balance - as the overall DEBT of the VBDA, the Beach schools, and the City Council/City Manager present a "budget" without "deficit spending". Of course spending tens of millions from the "rainey day fund" could reasonably be viewed as a form of "deficit spending". But guys like Mike Barreett like to play games hiding behind technical definitions when it suits their tax & spend and borrow & spend agenda.