Hikes and cuts proposed in GR city budget

Nice article, but where is the meeting going to be held?? It seems like a lot of meetings are held, but few are made public. You dropped the ball, joe.

Dear Mr. Kimball. It is time to lead by example. You should take a 10 percent pay cut along with all the top officials before you make any cuts to the lower paid workers who are providing the real services to the city.

how come da gov't is the only game in town to increase it's revenues when there's a problem with money????don't cha' wish we could do that (Hey boss I need mo' money GIVE IT TO ME)....friggin' moonbats!

One way the city is "increasing" its "fee money" is by going from neighborhood to neighborhood and marking all the sidewalks with "cracks" in them and then sending a letter to every homeowner telling them that they must have these fixed by a certain date. Of course they tell you the "price" to fix and what contractor's you can use!!! But the worst part is the city is collecting a $200.00 + "fee" for inspecting the sidewalks to every homeowner on the street. Some of these cracks are superficial and do not warrant having to replace. This is the "type of fee" that only a government could come up with to help "balance the budget" without letting the public know what they are doing. Just think of the $$$$ being brought in throughout the city with a $200 "fee" per homeowner.

Maybe Kimball could sell his hair-piece and donate that money to the city general fund.

It'd be nice if the GRPD would just enforce the existing parking ordinances.It seems that they cannot be bothered to even swing by my street & leave tickets were tickets are due.
I believe that the tools to increase City revenue are already in place-they just have to be used.

Or,maybe the S.E. side should just be taxed at a higher rate to offset their increased need for City sertvices?

JeffW wrote:

It'd be nice if the GRPD would just enforce the existing parking ordinances.It seems that they cannot be bothered to even swing by my street & leave tickets were tickets are due.
I believe that the tools to increase City revenue are already in place-they just have to be used.
Or,maybe the S.E. side should just be taxed at a higher rate to offset their increased need for City sertvices?

people don't pay parking tickets and it literally takes years for the city to get to the point of threatening any legal or collection activity.

It blows my mind that a few years ago, the amount of money collected by the city was more than enough, now, we must pay higher taxes, pay higher fees and penalties, and they still ask us to DONATE funds to keep our city pools open for the children to use. We all are affected by higher prices, gas, insurance premiums, etc... Do the city employees pay even close to what some of us are paying for insurance benefits, 100.00 And upwards per week for many individuals, on top of that, the coverages suck, higher co-pays, 80-20, no vision or dental. Guess we all will be raiding our secret stashes they ASSume we have.

grps parent wrote:

It blows my mind that a few years ago, the amount of money collected by the city was more than enough, now, we must pay higher taxes, pay higher fees and penalties, and they still ask us to DONATE funds to keep our city pools open for the children to use. We all are affected by higher prices, gas, insurance premiums, etc... Do the city employees pay even close to what some of us are paying for insurance benefits, 100.00 And upwards per week for many individuals, on top of that, the coverages suck, higher co-pays, 80-20, no vision or dental. Guess we all will be raiding our secret stashes they ASSume we have.

It is because Granmole and the state have cut revenue sharing so drastically

Maybe the city should just worry about providing basic services such as Police, Fire, Trash, and Roads and stay out of the business of raising peoples children and providing entertainment such as pools. The Mayor should also worry about making the city business friendly and not running businesses of with his extreme liberalism.

Frank Stanley wrote:

<quoted text>
It is because Granmole and the state have cut revenue sharing so drastically

"granmole" now i don't care who you are that there is funny!!

Since Heartwell used his liberal mood in the police chief selection and got two of he could reduce one.

Cut and Raise, Cut and Raise that's all we hear every year we need more money and provide less. Someone turn off the record player it appears we have a skip.

Get rid of the 'fat'(pork).
Start cutting wages, pensions, increase insurance out of pocket cost, start at the top!!!!!
Yea it's not nice but welcome to the real world.

Mayor Hartwell can put his Ford Escape on eBay and drive a old police cruiser.
We will even let him keep the siren to play with.
He can enforce his strip club ordinance that was so important and cost the city $$$$$$$.
I guarantee no one will ever know how much the city had to pay in attorney fees.

Focus on service like Police, Fire and Trash, Roads would be nice too.

Wally Walker
GR Downtown

If Kimball would start by getting rid of 4 or 5 of his Deputy City Managers that would free up over half a million dollars a year. But then he might have to take some responsibility for his poor decision making. Time for Kimball and Fartwell to go!!!!!!!!!!

Wally Walker wrote:

He can enforce his strip club ordinance that was so important and cost the city $$$$$$$.
I guarantee no one will ever know how much the city had to pay in attorney fees.

Wally Walker
GR Downtown

Buried so deep that you have a better chance of striking oil before you would find this information.

grps parent wrote:

It blows my mind that a few years ago, the amount of money collected by the city was more than enough, now, we must pay higher taxes, pay higher fees and penalties,...

You can blame the federal government under the Bush Administration for a lot of this, because these are the costs of their tax cuts (primarily for the wealthy) and rebates they've been issuing while simultaneously fighting two wars.

They've basically passed along the costs of public services to state and local governments that have to bear the brunt of the consequences from bad federal policy.

There's no such thing as a free lunch, despite what many in Washington will try to tell you.

Frank Stanley wrote:

<quoted text>
It is because Granmole and the state have cut revenue sharing so drastically

...which, in turn, is because the federal government under the Bush Administration and previously republican-controlled legislature has drastically cut federal funding for many of the programs at the state and municipal level, COMBINED with the fact that we've had non-leaders in state government for the past four decades that have done little to diversify Michigan's economy in spite of the ominous signs about the pending decline in manufacturing that is now affecting us full-force.

Blaming Granholm for all of this is woefully short-sighted.

There are rarely any easy solutions to problems as complex as these - so I don't buy any of the bogus claims that there's some magical treasure trove of fat we can trim from the budget to solve all of our budget problems.

For what it's worth (and even though it's sacrilege to say in West Michigan), I don't mind digging a little deeper and paying more in taxes to the city to keep these vital services (like those offered by the YWCA) from being cut.

Keeping Grand Rapids a great place to live is one of the major factors that is revitalizing this side of the state by attracting investment and people who want to live and work here.

Typical White Person wrote:

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WOOD TV8 - if you indeed monitor this board, uncovering that dollar ammount would make for a great piece of journalism work!!!

someone give Henry Herb a call. Maybe a Pulitzer prize in it for him!

City employees currently don't pay ANYTHING for health care benefits. $0/month. It's time they realize that those days are over, and join the rest in us having to pay monthly $ for our benefits. Once again, ignorant unions making the front page headlines. The days of making $50k+ a year with no education are over. Maybe they can just quit their City jobs, and serve me fries the next time I'm in the McDonalds drive thru.