(Mikhail Alterman)Either Beachwood is going into debt by $4+ million per year OR we are $6+ million per year in surplus. We don’t have both.
Linick says we are running deficits. Gorden claims there is a $6+ million surplus in general fund.
The $6 million figure has been publicized in Beachwood Buzz and elsewhere. But ‘general fund’ is only part of the city’s budget. Overall the city is going into debt every year, especially since the tax hike of 2009 elections.
Linick put out specific proposals on what to fiscally reform if he wins. He has been advocating for much of it while in the city council seat. Gorden doesn’t acknowledge that we’re spending much more than we are taking in. Gorden is not proposing cuts; he intends to continue to give generous pay, pension, and other raises. His own compensation got out of line and became a symbol of decadence in city spending: $350,000 per year, not counting the car(s), assistants, meals, and many other perks.
How did we get here? Gorden has never really cut anything. Linick’s claim of cost of city services per resident doubling in the last 12 years, from $6,304 to $12,175. Linick’s claim hasn’t been challenged. So the services remain relatively the same but the costs doubled.
None of the other issues matter as much as finances. How many improvements can be made to city services if the city is broke? Beachwood will not go broke soon and this is what Gorden and many city council members are counting on. And that’s exactly the kind of short term thinking that avoids dealing with the long term disaster.
The culture of lavish spending increases has to be reformed. Has Linick been opposing to lavish spending increases while on the city council? Yes, and more. Linick actually read contracts and voted against rotten deals like Omnova, etc. where Beachwood is on the hook to spend much more than to get in return. Just like with the 2009 tax hike, Linick proved to be right. The rosy projections from the 2009 tax hike never materialized but the money was committed to be spent already. It’s a lot easier to spend residents’ money on services (votes) than to reform them and keep spending under control. Linick indeed went into and questioned specific budget line items with department heads; some of it was done for the first time in recent history.
If Beachwood continues borrowing without an end in sight or without even a plan then more people will keep moving further east. We already have serious competition with Solon and other places, where one can get more of a house for the same money and the same city services as in Beachwood.
I don’t want the city to be broke; I don’t want to start planning to sell my place in a few years; and I don’t want to keep moving east or south. In 2013, voting for Linick gives us the only shot at reversing the financial decline and a long term disaster.
Mikhail Alterman
Beachwood, OH
ngoldfarbmd@gmail.com
Leave a Reply