Claremont City Council Approves Fiscal Year 2017 Budget
In Claremont, the City Council has approved the operating budget for the city in fiscal year 2017. The budget tallies in at a total of roughly $17 million and will support many utilities within town, including new fire department gear, new computer software for the library to upgrade their system, and fireworks for the July 4th celebration at Moody Park.
The Eagle Times says that the budget was finally agreed upon after four hours of discussion and fine tuning, passing with a 6-2 vote in favor.
Ultimately, the approved budget had been cut down by $50,000 as part of a final amendment proposal, but City Manager Guy Santagate has the final say into approve the cuts or not. Santagate had proposed a budget of his own earlier this year that would have cut taxes by 1%, but would have cut nearly $750,000 from the Public Works Department. The approved budget includes money to upgrade 19 sets of firefighter gear, that has become outdated and fallen below safety compliance standards.
Additionally, there will be around $13,000 for fireworks for Independence Day celebrations here in town, which should delight many residents. The budget will be enacted on July 1st at the start of the fiscal year.
The spending is shocking; officials should be ashamed of increasing spending by 5% from last fiscal year ($16 million). There is no justification for the spending as the consumer price index (cpi) stands at one percent; in fact, many private sector works haven’t received an increase in pay in the last eighteen years. Also, the addition of a marketing manager is a prime example of wasteful spending; we already have personnel including the (manager and planning officials) who should be marketing the city; if they are not fulfilling their jobs; then, they should be fired. A marketing manager cannot change reality-high tax city, excessive regulations, and poor water quality. In addition, the downtown tax increment finance district is unsustainable. Is it any wonder-no revenue from the parking garage, non-profit in the saw tooth building, and unoccupied Pederson Condos. Finally, the new city council with the exception of one is spineless and lacks political courage to STOP THE SPENDING!!!