Some opinions and just a few facts

Some opinions and just a few facts

   There’s an old saying that goes like this: We are all entitled to our own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts.

   For instance, it is my opinion that Ronald Wilson Reagan (RWR) thus far has been the best U.S. president in my lifetime. That statement is an opinion. It is not a fact. Moreover, it is my opinion that Jimmy Carter (JEC) has been the worst U.S. president in my lifetime – Barack Hussein Obama (BHO) and Richard Milhouse Nixon notwithstanding. Obama appears destined to change that second opinion.

   For the past decade, many people continue to insist that the president before the current one inherited a tremendous budget surplus, some $5

trillion, only to squander it on tax cuts for the rich and other Fun Stuff that only Republicans can comprehend and privately Giggle About on their Oceanside Yachts.

   Wait a minute, doesn’t Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts have a $7 million Oceanside Yacht and didn’t he relocate it to Rhode Island in order to avoid some new taxes in his home state? Hmm.

   The conservative in me was critical of the Bush presidency for a number of reasons, not the least of which was his failure to veto almost any new

spending (tax hike) that came down the proverbial pike. Bush also gets zero points for his costly, unfunded prescription drug plan for the nation’s most affluent group.

   But to insist he “squandered” a non-existent budget surplus is an opinion not supported by the facts. Perhaps the facts are not important to some people.

   While people such as the Opulent Boatswain John Kerry like to Just Blame Bush for allegedly taking a $5 trillion surplus and turning it into a deficit, the Facts do not support the Opinion.

   Brian Riedl points this out fairly well in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal.

   “That $5.6 trillion surplus never existed. It was a projection by the Congressional Budget Office in January 2001 to cover the next decade. It assumed that late-1990s economic growth and the stock-market bubble (which had already peaked) would continue forever and generate record-high tax revenues. It assumed no recessions, no terrorist attacks, no wars, no natural disasters, and that all discretionary spending would fall to 1930s levels. ...

   “The Bush tax cuts are a convenient scapegoat for past and future budget woes,” Riedl says. “But it is the dramatic upward arc of federal spending that is the root of the problem.”

   It could be said that a dramatic upward arc of city spending is the root of the problem in the ’Boro, too.

   While Mayor Dick Zink states he has reduced spending by some $750,000, the city’s actual expenses tell a different story. This “$750,000” figure was routinely mentioned prior to the 2007 city mayor’s race.

   Many of the alleged “savings” in this $750,000 were based on false assumptions of 40-hour work weeks and a significant transfer of wages in the police department to a newly created information technology position that cost the city more than $75,000 a year in wages and benefits.

   As I said publicly three years ago, the trouble with these figures is that few people in the city’s police and fire departments are paid 40 hours per week. In looking at real dollars, one ought to examine the year-end W-2s of each employee. (They are public record with a few minor redactions.)

  The fact is from 2004 to 2009, the city’s annual expenses are up – a lot. Even the much-celebrated plan to bring on a number of part-time firefighters, which was presented as a cost-saving measure by the administration, has not presented any savings to taxpayers. In fact, with the first two quarters of 2010 in the books, the added personnel has resulted in... added expenses. While there has been some reduction in overtime, the end result has been an increase in spending of almost $9,000

in the second quarter, when the plan was implemented. Add in another $30,000 or so for equipment and the increase is approximately $40,000 on the plan that was billed last December as a cost-savings measure.

   Last December, Hillsboro City Auditor Gary Lewis warned the city administrators: “Needless to say this is going to create a tight budget for 2010. Virtually all general fund departments will be seeing reductions in their budgets and that is with the health care increase factored in. No department will be exempt. Very little in the way of new equipment will be able to be purchased; and as of now, unless funding can be procured elsewhere, there probably won’t be much if anything for repaving any streets. We must be very careful about committing to obligations where there may be some perceived money available but we would have hidden costs in

those as well.

   “Each department will have to be very diligent in watching and keeping within their budget. This coming year (2010) they will have to be creative in making the dollar stretch. As a whole they’re pretty good about that. But we’ll be watching spending much more closely and we’ll be tracking revenues much more closely as well. Unfortunately, I do not see this negative train improving in the near future until employment picks up in our region.”

   That was the auditor’s honest assessment eight months ago. In response, the city increased spending. Across the street, the county bit the bullet and made necessary cuts in spending.

   Prior to the 2007 mayor’s race I concluded that at some point the city leaders must seriously address spending or seek another tax increase. It

will be interesting to hear the new arguments in support of higher taxes, given this city’s penchant for writing checks.

   Any proposal for a tax increase on wages earned within the city limits will be  met with automatic resistance  from this perspective.

   It is past time to put an end to $100,000 a year wages and $65,000 a year pensions for public servants in a community with 16 percent unemployment and a per-capita income of less than $20,000 (U.S. Census).

   Taxpayers deserve better. But if they want anything to change, it is time to speak up. Otherwise, get ready for yet another tax hike in 2011.

   Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.

There’s an old saying that goes like this: We are all entitled to our own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts.

   For instance, it is my opinion that Ronald Wilson Reagan (RWR) thus far has been the best U.S. president in my lifetime. That statement is an opinion. It is not a fact. Moreover, it is my opinion that Jimmy Carter (JEC) has been the worst U.S. president in my lifetime – Barack Hussein Obama (BHO) and Richard Milhouse Nixon notwithstanding. Obama appears destined to change that second opinion.

   For the past decade, many people continue to insist that the president before the current one inherited a tremendous budget surplus, some $5 trillion, only to squander it on tax cuts for the rich and other Fun Stuff that only Republicans can comprehend and privately Giggle About on their Oceanside Yachts.

   Wait a minute, doesn’t Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts have a $7 million Oceanside Yacht and didn’t he relocate it to Rhode Island in order to avoid some new taxes in his home state? Hmm.

   The conservative in me was critical of the Bush presidency for a number of reasons, not the least of which was his failure to veto almost any new spending (tax hike) that came down the proverbial pike. Bush also gets zero points for his costly, unfunded prescription drug plan for the nation’s most affluent group.

   But to insist he “squandered” a non-existent budget surplus is an opinion not supported by the facts. Perhaps the facts are not important to some people.

   While people such as the Opulent Boatswain John Kerry like to Just Blame Bush for allegedly taking a $5 trillion surplus and turning it into a deficit, the Facts do not support the Opinion.

   Brian Riedl points this out fairly well in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal.

   “That $5.6 trillion surplus never existed. It was a projection by the Congressional Budget Office in January 2001 to cover the next decade. It assumed that late-1990s economic growth and the stock-market bubble (which had already peaked) would continue forever and generate record-high tax revenues. It assumed no recessions, no terrorist attacks, no wars, no natural disasters, and that all discretionary spending would fall to 1930s levels. ...

   “The Bush tax cuts are a convenient scapegoat for past and future budget woes,” Riedl says. “But it is the dramatic upward arc of federal spending that is the root of the problem.”

   It could be said that a dramatic upward arc of city spending is the root of the problem in the ’Boro, too.

   While Mayor Dick Zink states he has reduced spending by some $750,000, the city’s actual expenses tell a different story. This “$750,000” figure was routinely mentioned prior to the 2007 city mayor’s race.

   Many of the alleged “savings” in this $750,000 were based on false assumptions of 40-hour work weeks and a significant transfer of wages in the police department to a newly created information technology position that cost the city more than $75,000 a year in wages and benefits.

   As I said publicly three years ago, the trouble with these figures is that few people in the city’s police and fire departments are paid 40 hours per week. In looking at real dollars, one ought to examine the year-end W-2s of each employee. (They are public record with a few minor redactions.)

  The fact is from 2004 to 2009, the city’s annual expenses are up – a lot. Even the much-celebrated plan to bring on a number of part-time firefighters, which was presented as a cost-saving measure by the administration, has not presented any savings to taxpayers. In fact, with the first two quarters of 2010 in the books, the added personnel has resulted in... added expenses. While there has been some reduction in overtime, the end result has been an increase in spending of almost $9,000

in the second quarter, when the plan was implemented. Add in another $30,000 or so for equipment and the increase is approximately $40,000 on the plan that was billed last December as a cost-savings measure.

   Last December, Hillsboro City Auditor Gary Lewis warned the city administrators: “Needless to say this is going to create a tight budget for 2010. Virtually all general fund departments will be seeing reductions in their budgets and that is with the health care increase factored in. No department will be exempt. Very little in the way of new equipment will be able to be purchased; and as of now, unless funding can be procured elsewhere, there probably won’t be much if anything for repaving any streets. We must be very careful about committing to obligations where there may be some perceived money available but we would have hidden costs in those as well.

   “Each department will have to be very diligent in watching and keeping within their budget. This coming year (2010) they will have to be creative in making the dollar stretch. As a whole they’re pretty good about that. But we’ll be watching spending much more closely and we’ll be tracking revenues much more closely as well. Unfortunately, I do not see this negative train improving in the near future until employment picks up in our region.”

   That was the auditor’s honest assessment eight months ago. In response, the city increased spending. Across the street, the county bit the bullet and made necessary cuts in spending.

   Prior to the 2007 mayor’s race I concluded that at some point the city leaders must seriously address spending or seek another tax increase. It will be interesting to hear the new arguments in support of higher taxes, given this city’s penchant for writing checks.

   Any proposal for a tax increase on wages earned within the city limits will be  met with automatic resistance  from this perspective.

   It is past time to put an end to $100,000 a year wages and $65,000 a year pensions for public servants in a community with 16 percent unemployment and a per-capita income of less than $20,000 (U.S. Census).

   Taxpayers deserve better. But if they want anything to change, it is time to speak up. Otherwise, get ready for yet another tax hike in 2011.

   Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.