Recently the City Mothers patted their backs for masterfully concocting a budget that brought smiles to those not laid off, and to all of us because it was not necessary to raise the tax rate. Many, including me, wondered why our assessments remained the same while one neighbor assessed $100,000 less. One item not in the budget, nowhere in the budget in any form, was an eight million dollar windfall that should at least have been noted, eight million that had it been paid out would have severely affected the budget and all of us. .
The budget looked good to those New York bond-rating agencies that determine our interest rates to borrow. Would it have made a difference if they knew we were relieved of paying the eight million? Surely there should be some column in the budget referring to such a large amount of money. One citizen asked how our auditors handled the eight million “non-transaction” but got no answer. Maybe you have one…here’s what resulted in the windfall. SPSA charges its members $170 per ton of trash taken to the Suffolk landfill. We pay nothing. During June of 2009 we deposited 5,472 tons at “no cost to us” of $930,240. That month times 12 is over eleven dollars...we are using eight. If the agreement terminates as it is supposed to do in 2018 our City Mothers will get very serious about it then becoming a very frightening budget item. So why not now?
2 comments:
The mothers may pat themselves ion the back but they aren't fooling everybody. Most Suffolkians take the simpleton approach of; out of sight out of mind. They believe garbage magically disappears in the hopper of the weekly pick up. However they are a few that are aware of the multi-million dollar liability. The SNH investigative reporters are dillegently following this lead.
I can tell you where the money came from to build the New Fire Hall over on Kings Fork. It came because of the forward thinking people who allowed Suffolk to escape the tonnage bill for dumping Suffolk trash. Perhaps downtown officials don't consider what we don't spend a budget item. But if were some change over at SPSA it would be a big item in a hurry.
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