My Comment: Scare tactic or trying to smooth the road for the higher tax millage.



Hmmmm....sounds like our pocket books is where it will come from. Makes one wonder what did we save on our budget with the turn in of Mayor's Car; City Cell Phones; ERI; Hiring of people to fill slots that were vacated by the ERI; etc.



I don't think that ANY decisions about additional millages should be discussed until ALL areas of the budget have been examined and the fluff/luxuries removed (unlike the 2004-05 budget that had over $1.3 MILLION in fluff/luxuries).

Final Thoughts on this:
How could Duchane even remotely state budget issues and that ERI didn't cure most of the budget woes when I have YET to receive my FOIA information on the actual numbers of the ERI?

I still beleive that our M/C acted irrationally with the ERI in how they handled or and for putting it in place before we had at minimum a 5 year master city plan.

In November 2004, Duchane stated that at minimum the 5 year master plan would be ready NO LATER THAN APRIL 2005.


We are in May.... where's this plan.



Funny how he skirted around the fact that if we allow this consolidation..... exactly how many people or resources will these other cities provide? Since LP has a strong City Safety Services...does this mean that our Police and Fire will spending all thier time in other cities???

Though this may sound good on the surface we need to look at ALL the Pros and Cons of this.

I certainly would not be pleased if our city services spent the majority of their time out of Lincoln Park.

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"Sometimes we must serve in order to lead"
by Unknown

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I'm looking for studies on the consolidation now.

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Sure smells like higher tax millage.

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ELECTION DAY IS TUESDAY-NOV 8TH.
Every vote counts - exercise your Rights.

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Here, I found something.

http://www.wpri.org/Reports/Volume15/Vol15no8.pdf

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Here is another one.

http://www.ci.omaha.ne.us/departmen...er%20Report.pdf

This is about County Consolidation, but I figured I'd put it up there.

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In my opinion, our purse strings are getting tighter. With the cost of living (including utilities and even gasoline), along with everything else--such as the high unemployment rate and/or lower salaries people are earning, everyone is trying to "take" what we have.

To sell a higher millage is going to take some work. Especially after all the money LP keeps spending, and not being able to show the citizens (those that pay the bills) exactly what they have saved since we got a city manager.

I don't know about you, but, for me...I am struggling to keep myself and my family afloat. Every thing is going up except what is brought home from our salaries after taxes, medical coverage. (I guess we'll all just become part of the lower (poor--I really don't like this word) class of citizens.)

Will this ever stop? Most likely not. Pretty soon, when we get our paychecks, they will contain an IOU to one level of government or another. (I am getting so sick of this! There are ways to cut expenses, but no one in power really wants to do this. It's easier to "stick it to the taxpayers!")

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rail1 (05-03-05), Mumzzee (05-03-05), DonnaBird (05-04-05)

I tried to add the HAP ,BLUE CROSS. DELTA DENTAL , BLUE CARE NETWORK .,OMNI CARE,charges as Brown read them off . Three of the Payments sounded like the City may be self- insured for some of the employees. They need to consolidate coverage and put employees on a plan that they contribute a portion of their premiums The last time I totaled one of the Accounts Payable for insurance it was around $200,000 for 1 month. There are 8 unions and each one may have their own coverage . The city could be spending money they don't have too.

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If pro is the opposite of con? would CONgress be the oppositeof PROgress?

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I might be confused..were they talking insurance group consolidation or city services consolidation? I don't know now.

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IHEART if they want to avoid tax increases find a better price.
If they want to save money consolidate the insurance coverage to cut expenses. They could have employees pay a portion . Or pay for the employee and require a contribution for family members. How many employees have spouses that are elgible for coverage by their employer,but choose the cities because it is free

I think we are maxed out on Mils . they would have to do a Hedley overide vote.to raise taxes , it would not pass The only other choice is a renewal of the expired street improvement Mils. designating a portion for balancing the budget. If they need to. Renewing would not increase taxes..There is also money from the 80's we have been paying on . Funding from new DPS equipment and the Funding for the retention basin will be up shortly. .

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Employee / Employer sharing of benefits makes sence..but I'm saying I'm confused as to what was being discussed up there.

Was it what I thought..
A) Consolidation of city services by combining local municipalities efforts in DPS, Fire and Police or

B) Going to one insurance carrier to consolidate the Plan into One plan, thereby possibly saving us some money.

I was under the impression they want to do item A.

If that is the case, I started to look for research into that idea, so far I have found two studies.

I havn't read them in thier entirety yet, but I do feel internally there are many things we should address before giving consolidation a try...say, any of the 1.3 Million Dollars Robin and I found in the Budget. (they may have covered a couple of these since we looked) How about an Actual Negotiation ..... in GOOD FAITH.... where city workers can learn that if they pay only 12.95 per week towards thier insurance it will save the city xxx amount of dollars per week, and show them how other unions are working together to keep jobs!! Oh, or is thier meathod of choice to write up a newspaper article that they're dropping benefits Period in order to scare everyone right out of thier job...Nah...they wouldn't do THAT .

Anywayz, I am going to use my day off to read up on these studies, and find some others. The two I posted are about city/county consolidation and mergers of cities. I have yet to find a study where cities stay seperate but share services.

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So the city employee does not contribute to their own health care plan?

With the present millage ending, the city will have to ask for a new millage. At this time, I am not against renewing the millage, but they would have to do a lot of convincing to get me to vote for an increase.

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recordar la yocorazon

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It would be a nice start to collect the back taxes first by delinquent individuals and businesses then go from here. Keep raising taxes that aren't going to get paid makes a lot of sense.

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It would be nice if the Treasurer collected the tax.

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A Five Year Millage? Yes
A non-limited Millage? Never
Vote NO on Proposal R

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Yeah, instead of raising taxes, what about all the back taxes that are owed, let them collect it. I am a senior on a fixed income and I do not need any higher taxes. I guess everyone in power just likes to get as much as they can from the average wage earner. With the cost of groceries,gas, utilities and insurance companies etc, it is unbelievable. I think the day is coming that hardly anyone will be able to afford their own home, what with the added expenses that go along with it.

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