Here’s a challenge: Become a fully informed citizen.
This will require gaining knowledge, which will take a level of dedication that matches a favorite hobby, similar to being a sports fan or an avid gardener or a kitchen chef, whatever.
But you can do it, choosing your own level of interest and how far deep you wish to explore.
To pick a sample for guidance, we selected the Saginaw city budget. OMB Director Yolanda M. Jones has been kind enough to start us on a tour.
We need not purchase a textbook. It’s online.
It’s this year’s budget, fiscal 2020-21, July 1 through June 30, which we need to study in order to form our viewpoints for the next upcoming one.
Click here to begin. The entire document should pop up, 445 pages, but do not be intimidated. Like a textbook or a Bible, you will need to explore only a few pages per visit.
Mayor Brenda Moore admits that when she received her first annual budget book in 2015, she “was overwhelmed.” But with patience and diligence, she took part in an ongoing education. After all, the mayor should be the most informed citizen of all.
“Anything we can do to educate the public and to be transparent, it’s all for the good,” she says.
Like a good book
You may be surprised to learn that it’s not all dull ink on paper, endless line items with an onslaught of figures and facts. The colorful cover illustrates City Hall, downtown, and the Rose Garden and Celebration Park near Andersen Enrichment Center. Begin with a table of contents and an overall statement from City Manager Timothy Morales, and you quickly will discover eight more pages of colorful bar graphs that help shed light into various functions of the city.
The first thing a reader will learn is that Jones and her budget team wish to help you learn. The opening 100 pages, some more skimmable than others, contain various explanations of all the ins and outs. Repeated review is suggested. It’s sort of like learning to ride a bike or drive a car. Once you begin to get it, you ask yourself why it seemed so difficult.
“Our intent is to create a budget that is easily understood, that reflects the city’s commitment to transparency and accountability,” Yolanda says. “The budget process and budget document is the venue in which this can be demonstrated. Since I have been here over the last 15 years, my goal is to create a budget and budget document that is a policy document, a sound financial plan, and operation guide and an effective communication device.”
A main lesson is that much of the budget is in the non-general fund areas, approximately 71 percent. Water and sewer, for example, operate on a user fees basis that we all pay, not based on taxes. The same goes for trash pickup, and the city receives state dollars for street maintenance, etcetera.
Therefore, we encourage informed citizens to focus on, or begin with, the portion known as “general fund.” This is the fund that contains basic governmental services such as police and fire, and the funding shortages linked to being an older, hard-pressed, manufacturing town. You may ask, why does City Hall have to rely on so many state police these days? Or, why have we been forced to close one of our four quadrant fire stations (Hess)? Or, why don’t we have the same summer recreation and youth jobs that we had when I was a kid? You will begin to find answers here.
A few simple numbers: Saginaw city had a peak of about 100,000 residents during the peak 1960. Today’s it’s less than half, about 48,000. The total yearly city budget rounds off at $125 million, a little more than $2,500 for each of us. An average house would sell for $36,000 and the annual city share of property taxes is $850, or $71 per month.
Council priorities, working with citizens and staff, are (1) economic development, (2) neighborhoods, (3) arts/culture/recreation, (4) police and fire, and (5) public utilities.
Budgeting never ends
We recommend that you scan Page 31 of this year’s budget. It displays a timetable. Budgeting is a year-round process, and Jones and her team already have started working with the various departments. Basically, departments begin their review of their operations to determine their needs for the next year’s budget and future year budgets. This includes the review of the funding levels of personnel and their various programs.
Council members receive the proposed budget in April, and May becomes their main discussion month. They are required to decide by June 1. Unlike the federal government, they legally are disallowed from running deficits or debt. This is what has gotten other cities such as Flint into past troubles.
One piece of advice is, that if you or your group wish to express a budget priority, even if for something as simple as more mowing in parks or more tree plantings, it would be best to air your views ASAP instead of waiting until an official hearing in May. A budget always is flexible and amendable, but specifics become more entrenched as spring arrives. The sooner, the better.
Whatever the case, hopefully this article has started to give you a basis for becoming an informed citizen. Why so much emphasis on the budget? Because a local spending plan — city, county, school or public health — is the manner in which we map concrete plans for our goals and our dreams. In that sense, it’s no different than a family budget.
In future Michigan Banner editions, we will focus on specific City Hall departments of concern, everything from police and fire to streets and parks. Readers are invited to stick with us in this process. There’s always something to learn.
This article is the first in a monthly series.
