Bflo , last quarter, 2 million dollar surplus

[Deerhunter]

Stopped in the CB meeting today. The CB's numbers indicate the City had a 2 million dollar surplus for last quarter. Not too bad for a dysfunctional city. Bet the County would like those numbers. Down to a bit over 2500 in city workers, down about 10% from last yr. 13 or 14 departments were operating below budget. I left after they started getting into the Board of Ed. Lot of boring numbers I knew nothing about. The county is cutting nurses in the schools, they talked about a remedy. There was concern about the lack of retirements in the BPD. I know firsthand , there is a direct correlation between those numbers lagging and the wage freeze they initiated on us. Once it is lifted, either voluntarilly or by court order, the rate will again match expected numbers. I predict. Neither Joel or Tony was there. Matarese, Hassett, and Milroy were though. The Board seemed happy overall with the way things are going. But I didn't stay for the whole meeting.

[WestCoastPerspective]

So is Lipke a good pick or too soon to tell?

Any chance of them expanding to include Erie County? :)

[Deerhunter]

He has approached people Baker wouldn't even talk to. I think that he will be better than Baker. I mean the guy has a successful business in a very difficult industry. Time will tell. It was encouraging to see those numbers coming from the CB. They seemed pleased to. Not that its over, but encouraging.

[Trolls_r_us]

I smiled when I read that.

It's good to hear good news!

Those of us who love Buffalo want to see MUCH MORE of this type of news!

[Curmudgeon]

2 million? Return it to the taxpayer by reducing property taxes and continue the expenditure cutting.

Sounds like the Control Board is succeeding in what it was chartered to do.

[Trolls_r_us]

Yup.

I think the BIGGEST question is: once the city is financially healthy again, and the control board is dissolved in 4-5 years, will things regress or continue to improve??

[Deerhunter]

So in the event they do slip up, the CB can come back in and recommend or possibly impose tighter fiscal controls. I'm just glad to see that the sacrifices that have been made are paying off. It seems all the cuts going on in the county aren't going to help anything, and again next yr we will be down another 100 million. I just wonder how the **** Joel got us so far down ? I know Medicaid and Pension costs of late have been a burden, but was the County Govt that bloated ? It's hard to believe even Joel could screw things up this bad.

[Riven37]

Originally posted by Deerhunter
Stopped in the CB meeting today. The CB's numbers indicate the City had a 2 million dollar surplus for last quarter. Not too bad for a dysfunctional city. Bet the County would like those numbers. Down to a bit over 2500 in city workers, down about 10% from last yr. 13 or 14 departments were operating below budget. I left after they started getting into the Board of Ed. Lot of boring numbers I knew nothing about. The county is cutting nurses in the schools, they talked about a remedy. There was concern about the lack of retirements in the BPD. I know firsthand , there is a direct correlation between those numbers lagging and the wage freeze they initiated on us. Once it is lifted, either voluntarilly or by court order, the rate will again match expected numbers. I predict. Neither Joel or Tony was there. Matarese, Hassett, and Milroy were though. The Board seemed happy overall with the way things are going. But I didn't stay for the whole meeting.


This morning news has reported that Giambra is sitting on millions of dollars because he isn't running again. doesn't this just piss you off !!

[citymouse]

Originally posted by Curmudgeon
2 million? Return it to the taxpayer by reducing property taxes and continue the expenditure cutting.

Sounds like the Control Board is succeeding in what it was chartered to do.


Good Idea, Give it to me. Next year to some one else and keep going to you get to all the residents.

[biker]

Originally posted by Deerhunter
Stopped in the CB meeting today. The CB's numbers indicate the City had a 2 million dollar surplus for last quarter. Not too bad for a dysfunctional city. .

Thanks for this informative post. I was planning to go to this meeting, but other things came up. I went to a couple last year. The difference between what I observed and what I later read in the paper was astounding.

I was a supporter of merging the city and the county until this budget fiasco. No longer. Does not seem like a good idea to load all our eggs in one basket. Would the water main break on Delaware last week have been fixed if the county were running it? This is the county which has had the parks closed for a month, even though not one official layoff notice has even been sent out.

Not that there are a lot of problems left to fix in the city. But things seem to be moving in the right direction. I'm still stunned that the voters approved our charter revisions three years ago. Or that a guy with actual experience beat out a career politician for comptroller.

Your post seemed to convey that slow, steady progress continues to be made.