Biel calls for Fact-Based Budgeting
This in via e-mail from the Terry Biel for Toledo City Council campaign:
Democrat Terry Biel calls for Fact-Based Budgeting
Council candidate says new leadership is needed to restore fiscal responsibility
Toledo OH — Democrat and Toledo City Council candidate Terry Biel says new leadership and fiscal responsibility are needed to prevent future budget crises for the City of Toledo. Biel spoke today, Wednesday, April 8 at 11:30 a.m. at Centennial Mall on The University of Toledo Main Campus within sight of the University Hall bell tower.
“Toledo is in a budget crisis that has our leaders mulling layoffs for hundreds of police and firefighters,” Biel says. “The fact is the economy collapsed in October, nearly six months ago, and our leaders still haven’t fixed the budget deficit, which grows by half a million dollars every week.” Biel says he is speaking in sight of the bell tower because it is symbolic: every time it tolls the hour, the city’s deficit grows by another three thousand dollars. Until the budget is addressed, every chime signals more police and firefighters who will be laid off, and further painful cuts to other city services.
“Our leaders need to learn from their mistakes and correct budget deficits immediately. My Fact-Based Budgeting plan is a common sense approach that restores fiscal responsibility and helps ensure future stability.”
Biel’s Fact-Based Budgeting plan calls for more standardized reporting and review of Toledo’s finances, using cities with comparable characteristics as benchmarks, and better use of internal financial data. “At the first sign of above expected costs or below-expected revenue,” Biel says, “the city should make an adjustment without delay.”
“We need a Fact-Based Budgeting process that corrects for unusual circumstances immediately,” Biel adds. “Ever since the financial sector collapsed in October we’ve been paralyzed, and the problem will only be more painful the longer we wait to fix it.”
In particular, Biel proposes that the city:
● Identify five to ten “Benchmark Cities” with similar characteristics;
● Compare spending and service level among Benchmark Cities during the annual budget process;
● Generate revenue and expense projections month-by-month rather than only across the entire year;
● Publish monthly reports online detailing actual spending versus projected spending, as well as actual revenue collection versus projected revenue collection; and,
● Mandate that the administration submit within 30 days a revised budget and revenue figures if either spending or revenue collection for a given month are off by two percent or more.
“I am committed to making this process a reality in my first term as a City Councilman,” Biel says. “Toledo needs new leadership and fiscal responsibility, and that is what my Fact-Based Budgeting plan offers.”
I think Betty Shultz’s proposal has been put into a copying machine.
April 8th, 2009 at 5:00 pmLisa: Has TB released his business tax records or did I miss it?
April 8th, 2009 at 5:02 pmYeah, release the records Terry. What are you trying to hide?
April 8th, 2009 at 5:37 pmNone of the candidates have released any tax records – City Council or Mayoral.
I don’t think this has been suggested before, what was before was “outcome based budgeting” and “citizen based budgeting” have been mentioned in previous campaigns.
April 8th, 2009 at 5:41 pmTerry Biel is far from qualified to be a city councilman.
Admin edit – Matt Rubin emailed stating he did not post this material, it was done by someone pretending to be him.
April 8th, 2009 at 6:11 pmThere is no benchmark for this city, trust me.
April 8th, 2009 at 6:32 pmEveryone, Every where, needs to get
City Council, along with County Commissions, back to the BASICS, AND
FUNDING ONLY THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE;
FOOD, HOUSING, HEALTH CARE, FIRE, POLICE, ROAD &STREET REPAIR, TRASH PICKUP!!
LET THE RICH PAY FOR THE “PLAY STATION CENTERS”
April 8th, 2009 at 7:00 pmAND “SHOPPING MALLS”!
The Line-Item Budget works just fine and is superior to Biel’s joke of a proposal. Come on Terry! What happened to transparency? The line-item budget is the most transparent budget one can have. This seems to be a move to create more of a fog around the city’s budget process. TB appears to be the same old Toledo politician, except in a boyish incarnation.
April 8th, 2009 at 7:01 pmSue wrote:
I don’t really see Trash Pickup as a “necessity of life.”
April 8th, 2009 at 7:04 pmFor years, we have had so many wild
April 8th, 2009 at 7:32 pmcats, racoons, and other animals all over the city in an out of trash along streets,
dumpsters, etc even with trash pickup
so if trash pickup is not a necessity
then we would have a lot more actual
rats, etc. which cause disease, etc.
According to the mayor we are losing $2Million/month and as of the latest estimate are $28Million behind on the budget.
How is this something we’re just finding out about now?!?
Terry’s idea sounds like a good way to be much more responsive to budget overruns. If we’d have known about the budget issues earlier, we could have made much less radical cuts than those being suggested now.
Why all the hate, people? I certainly don’t hear any better suggestions.
-Dan
April 8th, 2009 at 7:48 pmDan’s right and the City was going to do outcome based budgeting but with the one City Administrator that was working on that retiring, that’s over. In 2006 McNamara proposed citizen based budgeting.
The current line item system is not the best way to go. Personally I think zero based budgeting or outcome based budgeting is the best but? It doesn’t appear that’s going to change, at least Biel is coming up with ideas and I don’t think that is a bad thing.
That said, even if Terry Biel came up with a fantastic idea, some of those who commented would take fault with it. We really need to get beyond the personal insult zone…
April 8th, 2009 at 9:50 pmTb says “using cities with comparable characteristics as benchmarks”
Yep, we should use Detroit, Cleveland, and Columbus as models. Leadership is not looking at what other unsuccessful cities are doing…this isn’t rocket science….balance the budget by eliminating waste and stop kowtowing to the unions.
Is TB seeking any union endorsements?
April 8th, 2009 at 10:07 pmNone of those city’s would probably be appropriate since they have larger populations, though even looking at a city’s costs that is less successful than we are would provide benchmarks.
Benchmarks both internal and external are an aspect of most of the performance based budget programs I’ve read done by other states/cities.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:22 pmMartha44 wrote:
Obviously the cities you mentioned aren’t even remotely similar in any characteristics, especially size. I would imagine he’s talking about cities more like Grand Rapids, Syracuse or Akron.
-Dan
April 8th, 2009 at 10:27 pmTo photodan the population expert:
The population of Cleveland is 478,000 compared to 317,000 for Toledo (approximate.) A difference of 161,000. Syracuse – 140,000, Grand Rapids 198,000, Akron 217,000. The average difference between the three and Toledo is 135,000. If Toledo is not “remotely” close in population to Cleveland, than neither is any of your three lacking comparisons.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:09 pmIt’d be interesting if we would actually focus on the post, Akron would be closer than Cleveland, Detroit or Columbus, so one out of three is better than zero out of three.
There are cities out there that would be better as far as benchmarks in and out of Ohio, that is just one small part of this type of a budget system. As stated internal and external benchmarks are a standard.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:19 pmI see no need for snide remarks.
You’d have more of a point if there were walls around each city. The police and emergency responders take care of everyone who happens to be in the city limits, even if they aren’t residents. I believe that during the work day and on the weekends, there are more than 478,000 in the Cleveland city limits. If you want a more representative comparison, you have to take the metro area into account.
Yes, Cleveland proper may only have 478k but the Cleveland metro area has 2 million residents. (compared to Toledo’s 651k) Do you really think Toledo and Cleveland even remotely compare?
April 8th, 2009 at 11:30 pmTry pittsburgh, cincy….
April 8th, 2009 at 11:43 pmdaveschulz wrote:
Pittsburgh would be a good one. That way the Blocks would be able to optimize their involvement.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:56 pmMr. Biel has a rather grandiose idea of what a part-time city councilman can accomplish.
April 9th, 2009 at 6:41 amThat’s the only fact I can discern from his fact-based budget proposal.
If we are looking at other cities as models, population is only one of a variety of factors. You as need to look at tax structure, as well as the state tax structure which the city resides. This includes income and property tax allocation.
Nashville, albeit a larger city with a different employment base has done a nice job in managing their finances. We don’t have to stick to rust belt areas.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:18 amTax Time wrote:
Good point. I just thought it would be useful to look to the rest of the rust belt because we all face similar challenges with respect to the collapse of heavy industry and the auto companies.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:29 amI have a problem with choosing cities that do not have snow removal as part of their services. If we could find 10 cities that had fleets similar in size to ours then I could see making a comparison. Otherwise, I cannot.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:15 pmOf course, Toledo could discontinue this service as part of its package of services. It could contract out this service to one or more companies.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:17 pm