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In the Wake of Approving the Public
Safety Millage,
Questions Persist About the Rubbish
Fund
By Robert E. Martin
On May 2nd Saginaw City voters, faced with threats of laying off 26 police officers and 20 firefighters, approved a 5-year, 6-mill property tax increase to maintain & improve police and fire protection that will generate $3.6 million in the first year alone.
Resistance to the tax increase was never
predicated upon a desire not to have safer streets and adequate
police & fire protection, but rather was born from a mistrust of city
officials to properly account for public funds, given financial scandals
that have torn at the fabric of the city for decades.
The latest looming question relating to
the necessity for the Public Service millage surfaced during a round
table panel discussion with city & county leaders in the
March30-April 12th
edition of The Review.
Currently the City of Saginaw collects
$3.8 million for rubbish services, which they have contracted out to
the Mid Michigan Waste Authority at a cost of $1.9 million,
which would presumably leave another $1.9 million remaining in
the fund.
Similar to the Public Service Fund, the
Rubbish budget is a dedicated fund, meaning that expenditures must be
strictly limited to the purposes of rubbish collection; however, if
these monies were not utilized, City Council could conceivably vote to
rebate the money to taxpayers in the form of reduced fees and
reduced millages assessed for purposes of rubbish collection.
Indeed, over a two-year period, the $3.6
million raised by this latest public service tax hike could be
transferred without costing city taxpayers any additional financial
burden if these excess monies in the rubbish fund were returned
to the people footing the bill.
Less than one week prior to the May 2nd
special election, I met with Saginaw City Manager Darnell Early
and Director of Public Services, Thomas Darnell, and received a
detailed accounting of the Rubbish Fund budget for 2006.
The Expense Budget is as follows:
Administration: $602,830; Rubbish collection: $1,395,096; Environmental Improvement: $369, 114; Landfill: $557,393; Brush Collection: $129,987; Recycling: $309,000; Composting: $647,419. Total Budget: $4,019,839. According to Darnell, in the 'collection' budget $1,004,234 is budgeted to pay WM for rubbish collection, and $302,137 is budgeted for yard waste collection also done by WM. $547,792 is budgeted to pay WM for landfilling of rubbish for a total of $1,854,235. Additionally, $75,000 is budgeted under the recycling line item to pay for administrative costs of MMWA, bringing the total up to $1,929,253 that the City pays for services under contract to MMWA, which mirrors the information supplied to me by the authority.
As for the remainder of funds in the
'recycling' budget, apparently this includes $233,000 that was
budgeted for one half of a year's residential recyclable collection,
which will not be spent and remains in the fund.
Additionally, the Composting budget shows
a 40% increase from the previous year. According to Darnell, this
is for "increased overtime, temporary employee costs, and vehicle costs"
"Some savings will be necessary to
balance the rubbish budget due to the negative $382,155
adjustment made recently to account for receivables that have been
carried on the books for years, but are now considered uncollectible."
When asked about this, Darnell explained
that many of these 'bad receivables' are from citizens billed their
$50.00 annual assessment for solid waste service that did not pay
their bills.
The two biggest question marks in the
City's Rubbish Fund budget center around the $602,830 per year
'administration' expense and the $369,114 'environmental impact'
line item, together amounting to $971,944 of collected revenue.
According to Darnell, the 'environmental
impact' costs go to pay "one full time inspector and several part-time
people that handle the 6,000 complaints which the city receives each
year pertaining to code violations of neighbors allowing their yards to
fall into disrepair, or other environmental nuisances or hazards."
As for the 'Rubbish Administration'
budget, a breakdown is as follows: Personal Services: $66,581;
Benefits: $134,438; Supplies: $1,500; Internal Service Charges:
$331,761; Other Services: $68,550. Total: $602,830.
'Personal services include $36,256
for full time salaries; $18,082 for part time salaries; and
$9,948 to co
ver 'paid time off' accrued for an
anticipated retirement.
'Benefits' include $16,593 for health insurance; $94,275 for retiree health insurance; $16,875 for MERS pension; and $3,793 to Social Security.
'Internal service charges' include
$11,967 for 'information management' and $281,848 for
'indirect costs', which are charges to the rubbish fund for services
performed by general fund activities, such as collection of taxes & fees
and processing payroll checks. $37,166 from this line item
apparently goes to 'public works building rent'.
'Other services' include $53,314
for insurance, $12,500 for postage, and $2,236 for
telephone/cell/pagers.
When asked about these figures, Monica
Duebbert of the Mid Michigan Waste Authority noted that the
city was "dead on correct about the monies they are billed and remit to
us; however, we have no idea about how all these other figures break
out."
"I can tell you that the $602,830
figure noted for 'Administration' is the same figure that was
supplied to us back when the City of Saginaw still had five trucks
and eleven drivers and was handling rubbish collection on its
own."
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