Newsletter about the City Council meeting of June 5, 2012 - Addendum on the Hickory City Budget 2012-13

City Manager’s Recommended Fiscal Year 2012-2013 Budget Ordinance - Pursuant to NC General Statutes §159-12(b), a public hearing shall be held before adopting the budget ordinance. This public hearing was advertised in a newspaper having general circulation in the Hickory area on May 17, 2012. Copies of the budget ordinance were filed for public inspection in the Office of the City Clerk, Patrick Beaver Memorial Library and Ridgeview Library. The recommended budget is also posted on the City’s web page, www.hickorync.gov. Pursuant to NC General Statutes §159-13(a), the City Council is required to adopt a balanced budget before July 1, making the appropriations and levying taxes for the budget year. The City Manager recommends adoption of the attached budget ordinance for Fiscal Year 2012-13.

Recommended Hickory City Budget 2012-13 online





*I will come back and add highlights to the Powerpoint story boards below.

 

Budget total is $94.79 million. General Fund takes General Sources of revenue to fund the basic operations of the city to fund the Police Department, Fire Department, Parks and Rec, Planning, etc. State statutes require utilities to be budgeted and maintained separately. The Water and Sewer fund is completely self sustaining. The lion share of the Transportation is the airport; it also includes the Greenway bus system. Internal Service fund is funded by other funds, but must be maintained separately.

Manager berry states that what we see is a goodnews-badnews budget. Revenues are no longer falling, but they aren't growing either. Tax Revenues are increasing slightly, because we are collecting some back taxes. Sales Tax is expected to grow slightly. The Water and Sewer rates will rise in accordance with the COI. Manager Berry cited data that shows a $4.22 increase over the last 5 years. He cited where rates in Hickory's sewer system ranks 28 out of 33 in the State and this compares to current rates without accounting for the rise they will likely experience. The water system ranks 22 out of the 33. The City manager is also recommending a $1 increase in the solid waste fee that residents pay ($13 to $14)

Strategy is to recognize where there may be spikes in costs. This is why the fuel fund of $1 million was created. Some of those monies have had to be used. $2.5 million is being set aside to fund Capital Improvements over the next 5 years. This is not for new infrastructure. It is for maintenance. This will maintain the current service level.

Manager Berry talked about workforce strategies. He called the hiring freeze a soft freeze. When people leave the position is unfilled. A conversation is held with department heads to see whether the position needs to be filled, consolidate jobs, or contracted out... what will save money. Manager Berry stated that 30 jobs are currently frozen along with the elimination of 37 jobs that means a 67 job reduction in the city's workforce which is more than a 10% cost savings. 4 full time positions at the airport are reflected in this budget.

Manager Berry stated that our debt structure looks very good for a city our size and puts us in a position where we can borrow some money at a very good time to borrow.

Assistant City Manager Warren Wood next came to the podium and stated that they started looking at this budget last August and looked at a 5 year plan to see where the headwinds would be coming from during that time period to get ahead of what was coming. Worried about building permitting - half of what it was a few years ago and 1/3 of what it should be. Cities like a 3% annual growth in tax base. Building permitting will have to triple to accomplish this. Expect continued slow growth in Property Tax revenue. Limited sales tax revenue. Depends on Income growth. Property tax creates half of all revenue. Investment earnings continue slow growth. Other issues include ladder company paid for with stimulus dollars that are winding down. Issues/Uncertainties with monies coming from Raleigh. Loss of privilege license revenues will equate to 2.5 cents on the property rate.

The city has saved $700,000 over the life of the debt of water and sewer fund debt. The city is at or exceeding savings associated with accelerated retirement of City Workers.City pays 100% of workers health insurance. Employees will be expected to take ownership of their health or they will pay a premium towards their health insurance, if they don't meet certain benchmarks. City has done well with controlling health costs. There will be a safety assessment in relation to safety issues. Blip in Capital Improvement is a bridge replacement and replacing lights at L.P. Frans stadium. Assessment of fuel costs was done on the high end. Airport is a self-funding endeavor. Employee from planning Department has been moved to Code Enforcement. Conscious of delivery of services. S&P bond rating will be looked at it the upcoming year -- AA currently

Tale of two cities. Where can we save money. We must make some investments. Economic Opportunities out there include a Multi-Jurisdictional Business Park. County Manager believes Tipping Fees/Landfill will be waved. Along with vacant building fund and Brownfield Grants will help vacant buildings be redeveloped or torn down.Hr talked about the competitive environment and amazing amenities for a city our size and the need to be able to "tell the story."

Alderman Lail asked about $1.5 million to be budgeted over the next 5 years to replace the water tank at the Water department. Warren Wood stated it is for additional storage and will be 5 new tanks.

North Carolina Missions of Mercy Dental Clinic - Volunteers and Sponsors Needed for event on July 27 & 28

Presentation to the Hickory City Council on June 5, 2012 by Dr. Dave Hamilton and Dr. William Litaker Regarding Missions of Mercy, a Free Dental Clinic to be held on July 27 and 28, 2012 at the Hickory Metro Convention Center.

Free Dental Work will be provided to those in need by Dentists and Dental Hygienists in our area. There are other volunteers that are needed. The issue in ensuring that this project is successful isn't finding people with dental needs. It is finding people who are willing to volunteer time to make this a successful event. This event is meant to help people throughout the Unifour area.



A Power Point presentation was shown:

9.5 million people in North Carolina. 1 in 10 people in North Carolina experience a lack of access to regular Dental care and it is getting worse. The North Carolina Dental Society has stepped in and begun a statewide initiative called the North Carolina Missions of Mercy (M.O.M.) Program that will provide Adults with free dental care. Each year a dozen M.O.M.s are staged across our state. Since 2003, M.O.M.s $14.3 million in Dental care and 40,000 patients. In 2011, this program provided $4.2 million to 8,200 adults.

At least 200 volunteers are needed to help process patients, serve food, and help with cleanup. Sponsors are needed to provide time and money. $25,000 is being spent by the Dental Society to bring the event to Hickory. $8,000 has been raised so far.

Leo Rosten - ""The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."

40 chairs will be set up. They hope to see 500 patients in need. Cleaning teeth, doing, fillings, Dental Extractions will be some of the services provided. This is a drop in the bucket of what needs to be done. A clinic in Charlotte last year treated 1,300 people. How we respond to this will determine whether we can ever do this again. If successful, we can do this every year.

North Carolina Missions of Mercy Link 

American Dentists Care Foundation Missions of Mercy

Larry Pope addresses Hickory Citizens

Larry Pope has been told by the City of Hickory that he will no longer be allowed to address the Hickory City Council except pertaining to matters on the Agenda. In this short video he talks about his concerns related to openness and accountability when it comes to the Hickory City Council and their relationship with the people they are supposed to represent.



I would like to afford anyone who would like to address the people of Hickory this forum as a platform. I am not here to censor people. If you don't agree with the message of this blog, you will be afforded the same opportunity as anyone else. The only thing that we don't want to do is resort to threats or obscenity.

I feel that this is a much better platform to bring issues to the people. The audience is limited at Hickory City Council because you are talking to a wall of non-response and maybe 50 people in the audience. This blog has the capability to reach a world wide audience and bring your concerns to the fore.

The City Council could do a few things to open up governance on the local level and take actions towards being transparent. 1) Televise (or at least Audio Record) the meetings and make them available on the Internet in an expeditious manner, 2)Town Hall Meetings a few times per year, and 3) Move Citizens Requesting to be Heard to the front of the City Council Meeting Agenda and if something happens during the meeting that piques curiosity, then people should be allowed to address those issues at the end of the meeting as part of "Matters not on the Agenda."

Letter sent to Larry Pope by Hickory City Attorney John Crone

Microlending - Still No Action

Microlending is something we will continue to focus on with the Hickory Hound. One year ago (May 2, 2011) I had a discussion with the Mayor about this issue on Hal Row's Radio Program. It is an issue that Harry Hipps ran on during his campaign for Hickory City Council in 2009. He was the first person I have heard in Hickory talk about fostering a capital mechanism such as this to help start-ups be able to take that first step towards Free Enterprise. We aren't talking about a handout. We are talking about loans. Microlending was first established in Third World Emerging nations, such as India, as a way to facilitate entrepreneurship amongst the poor. Harry first addressed this issue, because we have seen the lack of a credit function in this community and in many ways this relates to the grass roots business development we have seen in these emerging nations.

This issue was also carried forward by the initial Small Business Task Force and research was executed to establish its legitimacy as a viable economic/financial function in relation to small business start ups. When this issue was brought forward at the City Council retreat of December 2009, our City Manager Mick Berry stated that it was illegal and would not let the presenter even address the issue to the City Council. Not only that, but a question was asked about could one of the businesses start a Sign Company and the answer was that they might be able to, which I feel is a petty/ignorant/selfish question. It shows that the aim, first and foremost IS to protect a personal vested interest at the expense of community growth. Microlending functions have been established in large Metro areas such as Charlotte, NC and San Francisco, CA, as well as locally in Valdese and Burke County and other communities in the Advantage West Economic Development Group. This proves that the premise of Hickory's City Manager is 100% false.

The most egregious issue is that the Microfinancing wasn't even allowed to be discussed with the City Council in 2009-10 and more than 2 years later we have still seen that this issue has been squelched. This is the pattern that I have alluded to over time relating to Hickory's governance. The stifling of debate and critical thinking about how to move this community's economy forward. 99% of the time, City "Leadership" makes up their minds about processes before they are even discussed. This closed mindedness is not leadership. It is also a reason why people don't participate in government around here and frankly I think Rudy Wright and Mick Berry like it that way.

You have seen me espouse this issue many times before related to the duplicity on the issues that face the community. The Mayor in the presentation above talks about needing to know a little more. He had the opportunity in December 2009 to hear a lot more about MicroLending/Microcapital/Microfinancing, but he chose to participate in stifling the discussion, which seems to be his forte. This issue, by the way, was discussed a lot by the Task Force that Mayor Wright personally created a few years ago.

I have been told personally that a Microlending function would be very helpful to Innovators who have had contact with the Manufacturing Solutions Center. Dan St. Louis, the head of the center, said that sometimes these people might only need a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. These people are usually working full time jobs and have families. In this economy, their personal budgets are stretched and they don't have money laying around to help with their side venture, so it is put on hold. So our economy is put on hold by the shortsightedness of a leadership looking to protect some theoretical interest that may not even exist. Luckily for Dan, the Manufacturing Solutions Center will soon be relocating to Conover, which surely seems to be a much more economically progressive community than Hickory.

I was in a discussion related to the local economy last week and a question was asked about how we felt about the economic condition of the community compared to last year. There were 9 people present. One person said they saw signs of progress. One said that they were seeing signs of signs of progress -- People finding work. Five people, including myself, said the economy was the exact same and 2 said it was much worse. One who said it was worse, said it was because people had used their reserves and they no longer have that cushion to fall back on, but the near term future didn't look to be improving and that malaise together with the loss of the cushion is very scary. Another person said that it depended on who you are. If you are at or near retirement, then your perspective is going to be different than a younger person. We still have a huge problem with the slow velocity of business in our local community.

In my opinion, the Mayor has only been working for years to serve the interests of a handful of people. Many of these people are operating in Cruise Control and they can't relate to the people that are struggling. The people who do know that people are struggling are growing perturbed by the priorities of Hickory City Leadership and their lack of real action related to the local economy. The Mayor has always said that we need to bring our ideas to him and he is looking for the "Right" idea. Well, look, this microlending idea was brought to him and he has done absolutely nothing. Yet, we have a half a million bucks to put up a tent on Union Square.

The Banks in this community have pulled back on their lending and that is understandable. We have seen a local bank bought out because they lost their A-double-you know whats playing the Credit derivatives game on Wall Street. Back in the early 2000's would you have ever thought that this bank would have found itself in a bind?

We need alternative sources of capital to move this community forward and microlending is a good start. All anyone wants is the City to be supportive of this process. No one is looking for a handout. No local government official can give you a valid reason not to try this. I just don't think they like the people that are promoting it and I also do believe that they are worried about how some Bogey Man might have an effect on their personal business venture.

I get tired of saying this, but we have got to do something. We have got to try some things. Last year, the Mayor kept throwing around this $20 million idea/figure. We don't even need $20 million. Put $1 million into a Microlending trust. Draw up contracts to get the money back and eventually you can decide after ten years whether you want to leave that money in there for the public good or take it out and use it for something else for the public good. This money would be a dynamic investment that would feed off of itself. It is the public's money and this is the kind of investment we would all hope the government would make. An investment than can benefit the whole community and not just a few.

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- June 3, 2012

Morganton man still waiting for mom's death certificate - WCNC Channel 36 Charlotte - AMY COWMAN - May 31, 2012 - Morganton man says he’s had to wait nearly a month for his mother’s death certificate after Mecklenburg County sent an incorrect death certificate and he never received a new one. He says that has affected his ability to pay bills, even the mortgage on her house.                    Richard Garrison is still mourning the loss of his mother, Jean Pruett Garrison, who died on May 5 at Carolina's Medical Center and he says it's been impossible for him to move on since he's still waiting for her death certificate.


Debt Up $1.59T Under GOP House—More in 15 Months Than First 97 Congresses Combined - CNSnews.com - Terence P. Jeffrey - June 1, 2012 - In the fifteen months that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives--led by Speaker John Boehner--has effectively enjoyed a constitutional veto over federal spending, the federal government’s debt has increased by about $1.59 trillion.                    Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution says: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” A law appropriating money cannot be enacted unless it is approved by the House.                The approximately $1.59 trillion in new debt accumulated since the Republican-controlled House gained a veto over federal spending legislation is more than the total increase in the federal debt between 1789, when the first Congress convened, and October 1984, when the 98th Congress was nearing the end of its second session.


Hospitals fight drug scarcity, fear patients harmed - Reuters - Anna Yukhananov - June 2, 2012 - At the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, pharmacists are using old-fashioned paper spreadsheets to track their stock of drugs in short supply - a task that takes several hours each day.                         Most of the hospital's medicines - with usage estimated at $100 million a year - are tracked by automated systems that allow for quick reorders when the supply runs low. But these automated systems, designed to help the hospital avoid purchases and storage costs of unused pills and vials, do not work if it is uncertain when the next batch of drugs will come in.                       A few hundred medicines make the list of drugs in short supply: anesthetics, drugs for nausea and nutrition, infection treatments and diarrhea pills. A separate list has scarce cancer drugs for leukemia or breast cancer.....             The growing scarcity of sterile, injectable drugs is one of the biggest issues confronting hospitals across the country, and will be a key issue at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago this weekend.                     Health officials blame the shortages on industry consolidation that has left only a handful of generic manufacturers of these drugs, even as the number of drugs going off patent is growing. Some drugmakers have been plagued by manufacturing problems that have shut down multiple plants or production lines, while others have stopped producing a treatment when profit margins erode too far.


Former Hedge Funder Presents A Terrifying Vision Of THE END GAME - Business Insider - Max Nisen - June 1, 2012 - Everyday, we hear some pretty grim predictions about the markets and the economy.  But this is one of the more comprehensive and most gloomy outlooks we've ever seen.
Raoul Pal expects a series of sovereign defaults, the "biggest banking crisis in world history", and asserts that we don't have many options to stop it....                A note on the presentation; the last slide is not meant to suggest that we're going back to the economic activity of 3000 years ago. It refers to the 3000 year old trade links between the nations along the Indian Ocean, which Mr. Pal believes will be the center of world's opportunities. Just like the West 50 years ago, they have "...low debts, high savings and a young population".


Top Mitt Romney Campaign Contributors - (Open Secrets.Org):

Top Barack Obama Campaign Contributors - Open Secrets.Org:

How The Super Rich Avoid Taxes Even As They Demand That The Rest Of Us Pay More - The Economic Collapse Blog - The way that we tax people in the United States is fundamentally broken and should be completely discarded.  The U.S. tax code is absolutely riddled with loopholes that allow the super rich to legally avoid taxes while many of the rest of us are being taxed into oblivion.  In our system of taxation, middle class families that work hard and try to play by the rules are deeply penalized while those that are willing to abuse the system make out like bandits.  There is something fundamentally wrong with a system that enables wealthy politicians such as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to pay a smaller percentage of their incomes in taxes than millions of middle class families.  Mitt Romney has millions of dollars parked down in the Cayman Islands and in other tax havens.  He does this to avoid taxes.  Unfortunately, most Americans do not have the resources to funnel money through offshore tax havens.  Most Americans just automatically have their paychecks shredded by taxes and then try to live on whatever is left over.  Most Americans are just trying to survive financially from one month to the next.  But the super rich have options.  Thanks to technology, they can live almost anywhere they want and they can run their companies and manage their investments from anywhere in the world.  The truth is that the wealthier you are the easier it is to avoid taxes.  But even as the ultra-wealthy do their best to avoid taxes, many of them still feel free to demand that the rest of us be taxed more...                            If you are interested in digging into some of the technical details of tax avoidance, a recent Businessweek article detailed 10 ways that the wealthy use our current tax code to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes.  It is an article worth reading if you have the time.                               It has been reported that 80 percent of all international banking transactions involve offshore banks.  A whopping 1.4 trillion dollars is being held in offshore banks in the Cayman Islands alone.                             An article that appeared in the Guardian estimated that a third of all the wealth on the entire planet is being kept in offshore banks.  One of the primary reasons for this is tax avoidance.



Anger over Christine Lagarde's tax-free salary - The Independent - Rob Hastings - May 30, 2012 - The IMF chief Christine Lagarde was accused of hypocrisy yesterday after it emerged that she pays no income tax – just days after blaming the Greeks for causing their financial peril by dodging their own bills.                         The managing director of the International Monetary Fund is paid a salary of $467,940 (£298,675), automatically increased every year according to inflation. On top of that she receives an allowance of $83,760 – payable without "justification" – and additional expenses for entertainment, making her total package worth more than the amount received by US President Barack Obama according to reports last night.                   Unlike Mr Obama, however, she does not have to pay any tax on this substantial income because of her diplomatic status.                      The news will intensify criticism of the former French Finance Minister following her controversial remarks on the increasingly bleak prospects for the Greek economy last week. Stating that she had more sympathy for poor African children with little education than for jobless people complaining about austerity measures in Greece, she said last week: "As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax."                         Speaking to The Guardian, she added that they could "help themselves collectively" by "all paying their tax," and agreed that it was "payback time" for ordinary Greeks.


America's Transition To A Part-Time Worker Society Accelerates As Part-Time Jobs Hit Record - Zerohedge.com - Tyler Durden - June 2, 2012 - Back in December 2010 Zero Hedge was the first to point out what is easily the most troubling characteristic within America's evaporating labor force: its gradual transition to a part-time worker society. We elaborated on this back in February when we noted that the quality assessment of US jobs indicates that this most disturbing trend is accelerating. Finally, yesterday, the BLS' latest jobs report confirmed that our concerns have been valid all along: as of May, part-time jobs just as disclosed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics hit an all time high, over 28 million! These are people who traditionally have zero job benefits, including healthcare and retirement, and which according to the BLS "work less than 35 hours per week." In other words, as little as one hour per week of "work" is enough to classify one a part-time worker. More disturbing: the increase in part-time jobs in May compared to April: 618,000, or the fifth highest on record. It gets better: when added with the 508,000 increase in part-time jobs in April, this is the largest two month increase in part time-jobs in history. Which means of course that full time jobs in May must have declined: sure enough, at a -266,000 drop in full time jobs, the quality composition of the NFP report was just abysmal and makes any reported "increase" in those employed into a sad farce.

Max Keiser on the Bilderberg meeting in Chantilly, Virginia

Competition, Jobs, & Entrepreneurship

Everybody talks about competition in the marketplace being good and yet what we have seen over the last several years is consolidation in the marketplace, which limits competition. We see that locally, nationally, and internationally. We see that both in relation to the government and the private sector to the point where the private sector has become the quasi-private sector.

When we look at the current jobs picture, we see the inability to find traction towards growth because there are fundamental flaws in the current economic model. The marketplace is essentially run through speculation that obsesses over short term profit models at the expense of long term viability. It all becomes how can you sock it to the customer? How do we keep the disposable goods model going/growing at the expense of quality/durability? and How you can cut costs to the bone, even at the expense of service and quality?

Laissez Faire types seem to think this is good, but I don't feel they are grasping the big picture. What happens to service, quality, and innovation when companies are allowed to stamp out competition and/or create barriers to entry within their business sector? What are their incentives to improve service, quality, or foster innovation?

We have fought this battle before in the history of our nation. In the 1890s, we saw the creation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) that related to how businesses could operate in relation to competition. The problem is that the megacorporations have transcended these laws buy making their companies Transnational in nature. At the moment there really are no governing rules that oversee how these companies will operate. Many of these Corporations have assets worth more than most countries' GDPs. This allows these companies to have free reign to manipulate foreign governments towards their personal interest.

How can this be fixed? I don't think, nor do I want, an International Body administrating the governance of these corporations. I think the better route is for the United States to make these companies abide by our structure of governance and in the interest of this nation. And if they do not, then they can't operate in the United States. And the goods that they sell in the U.S. will be taxed to equability.

On the local level, I am tired of seeing some favored and the rest rendered mute. Many in local leadership seem to think it is their job to protect certain businesses over the overall health of the marketplace. They seem to think that companies are more important than people. Local unemployment is reported at 10.4%, but the true reflection is the reduction in the workforce in Catawba County from 82,245 people in February 2001 to 73,305 in April 2012. That loss of 8,940 people in the workforce equals a shrinkage of 10.87%.

If we look at that reduction in the workforce with a common sense belief that many of these people would prefer to be working, then by extrapolating that half of that reduction in the workforce is a false reduction, then that would figure to a workforce capacity of 77,775 people.

By looking at the current given workforce 73,305 and multiplying it times the given Unemployment rate of 10.4%, we estimate that 7,623 people are unemployed. If we add the additional estimated 4,470 that have fallen off the workforce rolls, then we estimate that the number of truly unemployed stands at  12,093 ( =7623+4470 ). If that is the case, then the real unemployment rate in Catawba County is really right at 16.5%. This does not even factor the number of teens who have been delayed entering the workforce because of the poor economy. 16.5% is the minimum unemployment rate that we see in the area.

You may believe that the assumptions are off, but you can't say that the shrinkage in workforce is attributable to a loss of population. Despite the travails we have seen with the local economy, we saw an increase in population  from 2000 (142,515) to 2010 (154,389) of 11,874 people, which is a growth rate of 8.33%. In 2001, 56.6% of the people/population were considered in the workforce (82,245 workforce/145,405 population). Today that number has shrunk to  47.5% (73,305 workforce/154,389 population). The bottom line is that the jobs that we need to move towards recovery obviously aren't there. It has to be our number one priority.

For every anecdote that I am given about how lazy people are, I can show you people that a busting their butts and struggling to make ends meet.

Management will always look at the working class with scornful eyes. I have never understood this. Nor do I understand people playing the class warfare game against middle managers. We've got to meet somewhere in the middle if we have any hopes of turning our economy around.

We talk a good game about wanting more entrepreneurs. Well, the local community is going to have to put some skin in the game if we are to move forward with that effort. That means looking out towards the best interests of the community and not personal self interests. Can we do this? We haven't shown that ability in the past. Must we do this? Yep, if we aren't to see an implosion of population from our area moving to green pastures - to areas that would rather be ahead of the curve than run over by it.

Read about Ulysses Long of America's Got Talent in Today's Hickory Daily Record

 An article entitled "Hickory's got a star on 'America's Got Talent'"

http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/news/2012/may/31/4/ulysses-long-playing-1859-cafe-ar-2322857/