Showing posts with label The Budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Budget. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
June 3, 2013 Southfield Recommended 2013-2014 Municipal Budget Presentation
Note: Page 6A was a copy of a letter the South Eastern Michigan Council of Governments sent to the Detroit News published in May 2013 entitled, "Michigan's Road Funding Crisis". In order to avoid copyright infingement I edited the article out of the packet. Here is a link to the letter.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Southfield June 3, 2013 City Council Meeting
City Council Meeting held in Southfield, Michigan at 5:00 pm on June 3, 2013
Topics Include
- The city budget
- The city's use of CDBG funds
- Almost Home Animal Shelter
- Water and sewer capital projects
Note: A person in the communications section asked not to be recorded. Their portion has been cut from the recording.
An agenda and related documents can be found here.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Southfield City Council June 25, 2012, Special Budget Adoption Meeting
Special Budget Adoption Meeting of the Southfield City Council held June 25, 2012
An agenda and related documents can be found here.
An agenda and related documents can be found here.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Southfield City Council Special June 18, 2012 Budget Meeting
Special City Council Meeting held in Southfield, Michigan on June 18, 2012
Topics Include
Topics Include
- *The proposed 2012-2013 Budget
- *The fact that many commercial properties are not worth the value of their loans and my find trouble in the next few years gaining refinancing.
You can find an agenda and related documents here.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Southfield May 21, 2012 City Council Meeting
City council meeting held in Southfield Michigan on May 21, 2012
Topics Include
* The recommended 2012/2013 Budget
*A local theatre group (SRO Productions) leaving where they are housed in a restored church.
*A police officer's use of profanity.
*The Southfield Tree Fund
An agenda and related documents can be found here.
Topics Include
* The recommended 2012/2013 Budget
*A local theatre group (SRO Productions) leaving where they are housed in a restored church.
*A police officer's use of profanity.
*The Southfield Tree Fund
An agenda and related documents can be found here.
Southfield 2012/2013 Recomended Budget Presentation
Presentation of the Southfield City Administrator to council regarding the recommended 2012-2013 budget.
Notes: This video contains only the first hour of the presentation due to technical limitations. Audio of the entire meeting will be available shortly.
Notes: This video contains only the first hour of the presentation due to technical limitations. Audio of the entire meeting will be available shortly.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Southfield City Council Meeting January 30, 2012
City Council Meeting Held in Southfield, Michigan on January 30, 2012
Topics Include
Topics Include
- Alleged Police Misconduct
- The purchase of new broadcast for the City's cable channel
- An update on the Neighborhood Stabilization Plan
- 2012-2013 Budget Preview
- The Possibility of receding the City Council's previous decision regarding Golden Corral
- A follow up regarding public notices
- A FEMA Grant that would allow the fire department to purchase new resuscitation equipment
You can find an agenda and related documents here.
Friday, August 12, 2011
How Much Interest is The Government Going to Have to Pay
Behind all the rhetoric I think a lot gets lost when we talk about the national debt so using the 2011 fiscal budget, I created a chart that showed the federal government's net interest as a percentage of it's outlays, basically how much of what the government spends is going to be going towards just paying off the interest on it's debt, which is my main concern when we talk about the national debt.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
How Did It Come To This, My View on the Debt Ceiling Debate
I swear that if we default on our debt my facebook and twitter status for a week will consist of nothing but a string of F-bombs and," What the hells." But how did we get here. Let's rewind the clock to summer 2009.
President Obama had promised that he would reform healthcare and he got on it. There was an incredible amount of resistance. Some of it for crazy reasons that made no sense.
But there was at least one reason that made an incredible amount of sense.
Less than year prior congress passed TARP, in response to what I dub, The Great Crash of '08. The regular crash of '08 was when I had to clean reinstall Windows 3 days before leaving for MSU after a blown fuse. I hated reinstalling everything.
Uh, anyway the cost of healthcare reform on top of the cost of the TARP started making people think about how much money the government spends, and the national debt.
This became one of the issues that The Tea Party championed and campaigned on, resulting in them through the Republican Party winning the majority of United States House of Representative seats in the 2010 elections.
The problem the country faces is a result of the two parties looking at the debt crisis in fundamentally different ways.
The national debt is only one of the reasons why the Tea Party wants to curtail government spending. They also believe that the size of government has ballooned over the last decade and feel that one of the most practical ways of shrinking it is to starve the beast. That way whenever someone wants to do something overly ambitious the obvious answer will be is in the budget. No, then shut up.
They also believe that high taxes have an adverse effect on the economy and that that for the economy to improve taxes must remain as low as they reasonably can. And for that to happen government spending must decrease, dramatically.
Both the Obama administration and the Republicans feel that the national debt is an important issue, but until a few months ago the Obama administration held the position that the government should try to spend its way out of the recession, and that dealing with the debt was a priority but not the priority.
That, at least to my ears was the point of the president's 2011 State of the Union Address. The government has work that needs to be done and several Americans need work to do. By spending the money necessary to hire on individuals to do the work we would kill two birds with one stone.
The Tea Party's rebuttal to that was, If not now when, for them this was a can that had been kicked down the road for over a decade, when it should be immediate issue that takes top priority in Washington.
During the budget talks earlier this year it became clear that this is not the same congress we had a year ago that mostly agreed with the president's position that we should spend our way out of the bad economy. Not only that but because a lot of that congress was elected over that one issue, even the politicians who do feel that way are afraid to be branded McSpendy in fear of losing their positions.
We are currently entering the 2012 election season. And many, including, though I hate to admit, it myself, feel that the American citizen votes on catchy slogans and commercials rather than on complex issues. To explain to the American voter why congress had to raise the debt ceiling would be incredibly difficult and risky.
This one of the reasons why the idea of a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling was abandoned. Even though most of both parties' leadership says this is something that needs to happen, neither party wants do it without looking to the American public that they asked the bank to raise the credit card limit after maxing it out. Not doing it is actually more like a chargeback, but the mudslinging ads, come next October, won't put it that way.
To put it simply they are assuming that the American public is too stupid to understand what the debt ceiling actually is, and why it needs to be raised.
The truth of the matter is that while the debt ceiling is the legal amount of debt the United States government is allowed to have, we've already committed the money. It's like you and your friends agreeing to go order a pizza. Before heading out, you all agree to split the bill. That's money that you've more or less already spent once you order. When the bill finally comes you can't say screw that. I ain't payin'.
I just wish that both parties would stop acting like that is an option. It ain't
President Obama had promised that he would reform healthcare and he got on it. There was an incredible amount of resistance. Some of it for crazy reasons that made no sense.
But there was at least one reason that made an incredible amount of sense.
Less than year prior congress passed TARP, in response to what I dub, The Great Crash of '08. The regular crash of '08 was when I had to clean reinstall Windows 3 days before leaving for MSU after a blown fuse. I hated reinstalling everything.
Uh, anyway the cost of healthcare reform on top of the cost of the TARP started making people think about how much money the government spends, and the national debt.
This became one of the issues that The Tea Party championed and campaigned on, resulting in them through the Republican Party winning the majority of United States House of Representative seats in the 2010 elections.
The problem the country faces is a result of the two parties looking at the debt crisis in fundamentally different ways.
The national debt is only one of the reasons why the Tea Party wants to curtail government spending. They also believe that the size of government has ballooned over the last decade and feel that one of the most practical ways of shrinking it is to starve the beast. That way whenever someone wants to do something overly ambitious the obvious answer will be is in the budget. No, then shut up.
They also believe that high taxes have an adverse effect on the economy and that that for the economy to improve taxes must remain as low as they reasonably can. And for that to happen government spending must decrease, dramatically.
Both the Obama administration and the Republicans feel that the national debt is an important issue, but until a few months ago the Obama administration held the position that the government should try to spend its way out of the recession, and that dealing with the debt was a priority but not the priority.
That, at least to my ears was the point of the president's 2011 State of the Union Address. The government has work that needs to be done and several Americans need work to do. By spending the money necessary to hire on individuals to do the work we would kill two birds with one stone.
The Tea Party's rebuttal to that was, If not now when, for them this was a can that had been kicked down the road for over a decade, when it should be immediate issue that takes top priority in Washington.
During the budget talks earlier this year it became clear that this is not the same congress we had a year ago that mostly agreed with the president's position that we should spend our way out of the bad economy. Not only that but because a lot of that congress was elected over that one issue, even the politicians who do feel that way are afraid to be branded McSpendy in fear of losing their positions.
We are currently entering the 2012 election season. And many, including, though I hate to admit, it myself, feel that the American citizen votes on catchy slogans and commercials rather than on complex issues. To explain to the American voter why congress had to raise the debt ceiling would be incredibly difficult and risky.
This one of the reasons why the idea of a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling was abandoned. Even though most of both parties' leadership says this is something that needs to happen, neither party wants do it without looking to the American public that they asked the bank to raise the credit card limit after maxing it out. Not doing it is actually more like a chargeback, but the mudslinging ads, come next October, won't put it that way.
To put it simply they are assuming that the American public is too stupid to understand what the debt ceiling actually is, and why it needs to be raised.
The truth of the matter is that while the debt ceiling is the legal amount of debt the United States government is allowed to have, we've already committed the money. It's like you and your friends agreeing to go order a pizza. Before heading out, you all agree to split the bill. That's money that you've more or less already spent once you order. When the bill finally comes you can't say screw that. I ain't payin'.
I just wish that both parties would stop acting like that is an option. It ain't
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
June 20, 2011 Southfield Special Budget Adoption City Council Meeting
Special city council meeting held on June 20, 2011 in Southfield, Michigan regarding the adoption of the 2011-2012 fiscal year's budget
An agenda and documents related to the meeting can be found here.
Audio of the meeting can be downloaded here.
Southfield Special Budget Adoption City Council Meeting June 20 2011 from Greg Miles on Vimeo.
An agenda and documents related to the meeting can be found here.
Audio of the meeting can be downloaded here.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Southfield City Council Meeting May 16, 2011
The Meeting was held in Southfield Michigan on May 16, 2011
Topics include
Note: To download to an MP3 player or computer right click and and click save link as.
An agenda and related documents of the meeting can be found here.
Topics include
- Face to Face TED Project
- Recommended 2011-2012 Budget
- Increasing Pawnshop license and garage sale sign fees
Note: To download to an MP3 player or computer right click and and click save link as.
An agenda and related documents of the meeting can be found here.
City Council Budget Presentation Video
City Administrator James G. Scharret presents the Southfield, Michigan recommended 2011-2012 Budget to City Council.
Note: When I originally went to the meeting I didn't intend on getting video so I was not prepared mentally or technically for it. As a result the video may do some weird things (It's difficult holding a cellphone that way for that long) and I eventually ran out of battery so I only have about the first hour. However you will eventually be able to listen to audio of the whole thing. Also what I have here is in two parts.
Note: When I originally went to the meeting I didn't intend on getting video so I was not prepared mentally or technically for it. As a result the video may do some weird things (It's difficult holding a cellphone that way for that long) and I eventually ran out of battery so I only have about the first hour. However you will eventually be able to listen to audio of the whole thing. Also what I have here is in two parts.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Budget 2.5.1 A.K.A. I Am Too Young to Have the Lewis Black Voice, But Congress Is Made Up of a Bunch #@#@#@#s Who Can't Even Pass This Year's Budget!
First off let me say that I was brought up a certain way ach cha ak Democrat achoo. To illustrate my point when I was 15 I told my father I was an independent and we didn't speak for three days. For the sake of the writing I try to write things in a non-biased or at the very least centrist way, but the events of the last few weeks have been so political and partisan that I don't know if I can do that. I will try, but I am giving you fair warning. Here is what I have gleamed.
First off no matter what chicanery the Republican Party put the country through the simple fact is that the embarrassment that was the near shut down of our government occurred because the democrats failed to do their jobs six months ago. Regardless of anything I say after this, that is the truth. There is no fuzzy euphemism for it. They abdicated their responsibility because they were afraid they would lose an election.
Regardless of my normal political leanings, it is hard, though trust me not impossible, for me to blame the republicans for using increased political leverage to get what they felt their constituency wanted. Though I think any form of chicken is stupid, I can see how it politically appealed to them. However, I am appalled at the idiots who said bring on a government shut down and trust me there were plenty of those voices.
From a practical point of view the reason why America is a city upon a hill is not because of our high-faluting rhetoric. It is because our government is stable. It is because people who work for us know that they will get paid. There is no way that a person could argue that upsetting that governmental stability is in the best interest of the electorate. This is reason I say the confederacy was in the wrong. (I know. I can hold a long grudge. Just ask J.T. from the third grade. You know what you did. )
Regardless of who is to blame, and trust me, I have enough ass-hat awards for everyone, as a country we now have to ask ourselves serious questions about how we spend and gain revenue.
We pride ourselves on being a country that firmly believes in equality of opportunity but the sad truth is that not everyone is born with the same resources and opportunities as everyone else. To compensate for this we believe in things like public education and social security, so that no matter what, people will be able to live with a minimum amount of decency.
In order to fund these things revenue must be generated from those who are able to afford it. We are also a nation that believes in individual rights, in particular individual property rights. The house I build with my own two hands should not be stolen from me and given to another man to sleep in.
These two ideals now seem to be coming into conflict with one another. We previously reconciled them by saying that these programs worked towards the common good. That by funding schools, I guaranteed my children would have an education. By funding social security, I guaranteed that I would be provided for in old age. In short by serving the collective I was serving myself. Now our faith in that ideal has been shaken. As an individual mine has not, yet I can understand how other's faith has been. Simply put the money may no longer be there.
We now must seek a new contract within ourselves to reconcile the duality of the American character. In the coming months and weeks our legislators and our president will do just that while trying lower our debt. I just hope that both sides take on this task with blindness towards the next election and with an honesty that allows them to do what is in the best interest for the American people, not just what they feel will get them re-elected.
First off no matter what chicanery the Republican Party put the country through the simple fact is that the embarrassment that was the near shut down of our government occurred because the democrats failed to do their jobs six months ago. Regardless of anything I say after this, that is the truth. There is no fuzzy euphemism for it. They abdicated their responsibility because they were afraid they would lose an election.
Regardless of my normal political leanings, it is hard, though trust me not impossible, for me to blame the republicans for using increased political leverage to get what they felt their constituency wanted. Though I think any form of chicken is stupid, I can see how it politically appealed to them. However, I am appalled at the idiots who said bring on a government shut down and trust me there were plenty of those voices.
From a practical point of view the reason why America is a city upon a hill is not because of our high-faluting rhetoric. It is because our government is stable. It is because people who work for us know that they will get paid. There is no way that a person could argue that upsetting that governmental stability is in the best interest of the electorate. This is reason I say the confederacy was in the wrong. (I know. I can hold a long grudge. Just ask J.T. from the third grade. You know what you did. )
Regardless of who is to blame, and trust me, I have enough ass-hat awards for everyone, as a country we now have to ask ourselves serious questions about how we spend and gain revenue.
We pride ourselves on being a country that firmly believes in equality of opportunity but the sad truth is that not everyone is born with the same resources and opportunities as everyone else. To compensate for this we believe in things like public education and social security, so that no matter what, people will be able to live with a minimum amount of decency.
In order to fund these things revenue must be generated from those who are able to afford it. We are also a nation that believes in individual rights, in particular individual property rights. The house I build with my own two hands should not be stolen from me and given to another man to sleep in.
These two ideals now seem to be coming into conflict with one another. We previously reconciled them by saying that these programs worked towards the common good. That by funding schools, I guaranteed my children would have an education. By funding social security, I guaranteed that I would be provided for in old age. In short by serving the collective I was serving myself. Now our faith in that ideal has been shaken. As an individual mine has not, yet I can understand how other's faith has been. Simply put the money may no longer be there.
We now must seek a new contract within ourselves to reconcile the duality of the American character. In the coming months and weeks our legislators and our president will do just that while trying lower our debt. I just hope that both sides take on this task with blindness towards the next election and with an honesty that allows them to do what is in the best interest for the American people, not just what they feel will get them re-elected.
Monday, March 21, 2011
The Budget 2.5: State Style
Okay so yesterday or today depending if you're a print or online guy, The Free Press rolled out an article about Michigan, Governor Snyder's proposed budget. I'll write something longer in a bit but here is the gist of it.
Here are some of the big things that I want to talk about.
1. The cuts - And boy howdy are there a lot of them.
2. He wants to get rid of the Michigan Business Tax and replace it with a 6 percent corporate income tax.
3. He wants to Tax pensions.
4. He wants to allow citizens to be able to get a better look at government performance through a website called Michigan Dashboard.
5. He wants to eliminate business tax credits.
6. He wants to reform revenue sharing, which distributes money to municipalities, townships, etc., through an incentive based program.
7.He wants to reform how the state handles retired public employee benefits.
Here are some of the big things that I want to talk about.
1. The cuts - And boy howdy are there a lot of them.
2. He wants to get rid of the Michigan Business Tax and replace it with a 6 percent corporate income tax.
3. He wants to Tax pensions.
4. He wants to allow citizens to be able to get a better look at government performance through a website called Michigan Dashboard.
5. He wants to eliminate business tax credits.
6. He wants to reform revenue sharing, which distributes money to municipalities, townships, etc., through an incentive based program.
7.He wants to reform how the state handles retired public employee benefits.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Budget 2.0 : Okay now I have something : Things to Keep in Mind
Okay after that last post and some thinking I finally came up with something to write. A list of things people should keep in mind, that they usually don't when looking at the budget.
5. NASA and foreign aid for the last few years have gotten about less than one percent each.
I'm going to level with you all. I am a nerd/geek. I think that NASA does improve our lives, but even if I didn't I am tired of hearing everybody say, "We should cut all that money that goes to NASA and foreign aid." Those budgets were slashed way back in the day and never really came back up.
4. Inflation
I'm not going to lie. The deficit is bad, but it's not as bad as everyone thinks due to this little economic trend that's been in effect of as long as anyone can remember. Inflation. Put simply 5 bucks next year isn't worth as much as 5 bucks today This is why all those financial experts tell you to invest rather than letting your money sit around, because by doing so you're letting it lose value. How does this affect the budget? Simple. Paying back the debt becomes easier. Think about it. Lets say back in the 90's you paid 10 grand for a car. That's still a lot of money, but its not as much as it was worth in the 90's. Of course this is why banks make you pay interest rates favorable to them.
3. The Economy Sucks and has for the last few years so the government has less revenue to work with.
I can already see it. Pundits playing the blame game on the deficit, but the truth is it's not really anyone's fault, or at least not as much of anybody's fault. The government makes money through taxes which it collects based on how much money people make. When people make less money so does the government, leading to two things, cuts and deficits.
2. Mandatory Spending
A lot of what's in the budget is money the government legally has to spend. It's stuff that they flat out can't get rid of even if they wanted to. This includes social security.
1. Tough Cuts
This goes back to 5. Everyone thinks that the government wastes crap tons of money and yes sometimes it does, but not as much as everyone thinks. If we really want to shrink the budget politicians would have to look at stuff that nobody wants to cut. For a micro example of this look at Michigan and Detroit. Of course Kwame screwed everyone over, but still.
5. NASA and foreign aid for the last few years have gotten about less than one percent each.
I'm going to level with you all. I am a nerd/geek. I think that NASA does improve our lives, but even if I didn't I am tired of hearing everybody say, "We should cut all that money that goes to NASA and foreign aid." Those budgets were slashed way back in the day and never really came back up.
4. Inflation
I'm not going to lie. The deficit is bad, but it's not as bad as everyone thinks due to this little economic trend that's been in effect of as long as anyone can remember. Inflation. Put simply 5 bucks next year isn't worth as much as 5 bucks today This is why all those financial experts tell you to invest rather than letting your money sit around, because by doing so you're letting it lose value. How does this affect the budget? Simple. Paying back the debt becomes easier. Think about it. Lets say back in the 90's you paid 10 grand for a car. That's still a lot of money, but its not as much as it was worth in the 90's. Of course this is why banks make you pay interest rates favorable to them.
3. The Economy Sucks and has for the last few years so the government has less revenue to work with.
I can already see it. Pundits playing the blame game on the deficit, but the truth is it's not really anyone's fault, or at least not as much of anybody's fault. The government makes money through taxes which it collects based on how much money people make. When people make less money so does the government, leading to two things, cuts and deficits.
2. Mandatory Spending
A lot of what's in the budget is money the government legally has to spend. It's stuff that they flat out can't get rid of even if they wanted to. This includes social security.
1. Tough Cuts
This goes back to 5. Everyone thinks that the government wastes crap tons of money and yes sometimes it does, but not as much as everyone thinks. If we really want to shrink the budget politicians would have to look at stuff that nobody wants to cut. For a micro example of this look at Michigan and Detroit. Of course Kwame screwed everyone over, but still.
The Budget 2.0
Part of me wanted to do something on the budget. After spending 20 minutes staring at huge excel spreadsheets I realized something. The reporters doing this have experience and probably some background in finances to understand this type of stuff. Not only that, but they will be poring over this data for the next couple weeks trying to make sense of it all. My point is I'm not really in a position to do that so I'm just going to paste some links. Yes I know it's a cheap cop-out. Maybe I will go through the data but right now I could go for some toast and bacon.
The Government Printing office which has both print and online copies of the budgets for the last couple of years.
Also here is a cool tool the New York Times put out regarding the budget.
The Government Printing office which has both print and online copies of the budgets for the last couple of years.
Also here is a cool tool the New York Times put out regarding the budget.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The Budget
I was raised in a staunchly democratic family. Don't force a ten year old to go to a political banquette, if you don't have to. It will not end well. Right now republicans look a little crazy, but the dems can be just as crazy. In those campaign speeches it was always lets get those republicans.
I disagree with republicans on a series of issues but they do have a few good points.
I may be a hippie, but I am deep in the money.
I am not a fiscal conservative. I believe in the Keynesian idea that a small deficit is a good thing, but what we have right now is not a small deficit.What we have right now is the largest deficit in the history of the United States. (I was wrong about that. When you consider the deficit as a percentage of GDP, it was actually larger in the 1940's, during WWII. Although in terms of the dollar amount it is still larger now.)Something needs to be done about it. That said its not necessarily anyone's fault. Something needs to be done about it. That said its not necessarily anyone's fault. The Dems want to blame Bush for it and the Reps want to blame Clinton and Obama, but its none of their fault.
One of the reasons why Clinton had a surplus was that the economy was generally booming and everyone was paying more taxes as a result. Now that it's not and, especially over the last 3 years, has really been hit the government is simply not making as much money as it used to.
The problem is exacerbated by trying to figure out what programs to cut. Contrary to popular belief over the the last 30 years the federal (states are another story) bureaucracy, based on the number of federal emplyees, has not grown that much. I am of the belief that in a modern society the idea of not feeling the hand of government is outmoded. We need the Environmental Protection Agency(Yes I believe global warming is man made). We need the Department of Transportation (I'm really hoping we get started working on that bullet train). We need the Consumer Product Safety Commission (Toyota!!!!!!!!).
If we got rid of some of these programs there would be outrage. Unemployment is still high and right now government stimulus packages are still needed.
It's a catch 22. Hey I'm just a plucky college kid. Don't ask me what to do.
I disagree with republicans on a series of issues but they do have a few good points.
I may be a hippie, but I am deep in the money.
I am not a fiscal conservative. I believe in the Keynesian idea that a small deficit is a good thing, but what we have right now is not a small deficit.
One of the reasons why Clinton had a surplus was that the economy was generally booming and everyone was paying more taxes as a result. Now that it's not and, especially over the last 3 years, has really been hit the government is simply not making as much money as it used to.
The problem is exacerbated by trying to figure out what programs to cut. Contrary to popular belief over the the last 30 years the federal (states are another story) bureaucracy, based on the number of federal emplyees, has not grown that much. I am of the belief that in a modern society the idea of not feeling the hand of government is outmoded. We need the Environmental Protection Agency(Yes I believe global warming is man made). We need the Department of Transportation (I'm really hoping we get started working on that bullet train). We need the Consumer Product Safety Commission (Toyota!!!!!!!!).
If we got rid of some of these programs there would be outrage. Unemployment is still high and right now government stimulus packages are still needed.
It's a catch 22. Hey I'm just a plucky college kid. Don't ask me what to do.
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