Apparently Park Bench forgot to bring up the fact that the PD overspent last year to the tune of $1.6 million, even though they were only expecting a deficit of $900,000.

They are already planning in the 2011 budget for a deficit of $360,000. What are the odds they blow that one as well?

Melissa Creech has an interesting note in her blog.

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December 21, 2010
The Board approved the 2011 budget on a 4-3 vote with Commissioners Hess, Dallman, Minogue and Aubrey voting yes, and Commissioners Creech, Kinzler and Nephew voting no.

I voted no because I am very concerned about how rapidly we are drawing down our fund reserves. The budget calls for deficit spending of over $360,000 for 2011. This $360,000 deficit spending is the best case scenario for 2011- this assumes that we stick to the budget. In 2010 we planned on $920,000 in deficit spending but staff overspent the budget by $697,690, leaving us $1.6 million down for 2010. President Hess refused to address the deficit spending and the budget overruns when Commissioners Kinzler, Nephew and I expressed our concerns.

We anticipate that the GEPD will have $2.6 million in fund reserves at the end of 2011. However, the reason we have a positive balance is because the previous board approved borrowing $4 million in bonds ten minutes before Commissioners Kinzler, Nephew and I were seated last May. Without borrowing those funds, we would be $1.4 million in debt. Taking out those bonds maxed out our legal debt limit and the GEPD cannot borrow more money until 2013 without a referendum. This leaves us a thin margin for emergencies.

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Can you say, vote yes to keep taxes the same? I knew you could.

I'm sure that once Ackerman, Holes-n-Knolls and Paddle start raking in the big bucks. We'll be back to adding to our reserve funds in no time .