Facebook
RSS![[Masthead]](http://www.fstribune.com/images/nameplate.png)
RSS
Print
Email link
Respond to editor
Read comments (9)
The budget passed by a 3-2 vote with a 2.5 mill levy increase bringing the total levy to 47.502 mills. Property taxes for a home valued at $50,000 will increase $14.28 and a house valued at $100,000 will increase by $28.57.
The commissioners have held several work sessions to avoid mill levy increase however department cuts, operational cuts, and even job cuts could not lower expenditures enough.
"Department heads have done a lot to cut," Fort Scott City Commissioner Jean Parker said. "We definitely need to watch our Ps and Qs."
One major problem with the budget is the decreasing reserve moneys. Which led Fort Scott Mayor Gary Bukowski to say the city needs to be "tight fisted."
"It's not a pleasant situation," Bukowski said. "We could see some major problems."
Other business conducted by the commission included:
* Proclaimed Sept. 11 as Patriot Day in which American flags around the county should be displayed at half-staff and a moment of silence should be observed in remembrance of the innocent lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001.
* Granted permission and will draft a letter stating such permission to host a fishing tournament Sept. 26 at Fort Scott Lake.
* Approved payment of $156,000 to APAC for street improvements.
* Set a public hearing for the alleged unsafe and dangerous structure located at 102 S. Washington.
* Approved payment of $43,800 to Marbery Concrete, Inc. for sidewalk improvements.
* Approved a change to the weeds ordinance stating lowering the excessive height from 12 inches to 8 inches.
* Signed a resolution to participate in the Bourbon County's hazard mitigation plan.
* Accepted the low bid of $11,905 from Professional Health Services, Inc. for physical evaluations for the Fort Scott Fire Department. The evaluations will be paid for by a grant received by the department.
* Denied signing a letter of support for a sewer system at Lake Fort Scott. The issue has been tabled until more cost data is available.
* Approved a supplemental agreement with Professional Engineering Consultants, P.A. for additional work to the Streetscape Project.
* Approved a Certificate of Appropriateness for the restoration or replacement of damaged marble above the main entrance to the building located at 8 East 1st.
* Approved to notify city staff to proceed with the sale of surplus items through auction and sealed bid.
Comments
What was the vote breakdown? In a tight vote like this I'm always interested who the nays were and who the yays were.
Mason - Yea
Bukowski - Yea
Hedges - Yea
Adams - Nay
well we know you'd have been a yea, no matter what the economy is like.
All the additional spending you approved and during economic hard times!
The chickens are coming home to roost, and I fear this is just the beginning of many futile attempts to keep Fort Scott's head above water in the future.
Mill levy and other tax increases can give the city severely diminishing returns in the long term as our population and employer base decreases. This also adds to the debt burden of the individual taxpayer as well as all businesses which is counterproductive to growth.
I can't believe you,Mr Hedges,Mr Niendstat,etc. and your economics professor at PSU didn't see this coming. I bet "you alls" 401k's or other retirement investments tanked as well.
Yea for Parker and Adams, seems they are the only ones with any sense. Nay for Mason, Bukowski & Hedges.....same good old boys policies!
Actually, I haven't spoken to either concerned in months now, but I have a feeling I know the reasoning behind the nay votes, and I agree with it.
At the same time, I have always found it ironic that a certain generation - which is to say yours - made a lot of money and had a lot of success in the Fort Scott/Bourbon County area, yet the whole time never bothered to make any decisions or movements that would ensure that generations after would have a chance to enjoy similar success, even when there was ample time to do so. Fort Scott didn't stagnate over a series of weeks or months, it did so over the course of decades, and more or less and an entire generation of people that could have said "WAITAMINUTE!" just let it happen. There are exceptions, of course, but the many greatly outweighed the few, just like what is happening with my generation.
You all were doing well enough for yourselves - who cared about who came after? And now what does Fort Scott have to offer your grandchildren, and your children for that matter? A lot less than it should. Though you in particular should consider yourself fortunate that you do have kids and grandkids still in Fort Scott, as the population of folks in their twenties in Bourbon County is roughly equal to the population of brontosauruses in Bourbon County. Now we (I count myself as a we since I still own residential property in Fort Scott) have a few souls trying their best to prop things up, investing a lot of time and/or money in things they know will not see a return on (at least for a long time), and a good chunk of the generation that let everything go to pot now complains about the city doing any spending whatsoever.
That's not to say I am in agreement with all the decisions being made right now, but a small mill levy increase was going to be required just to keep the new, aggressive street program running, and that's not counting the decrease in revenues and the decrease in funding coming from the state. Which is not to say I agree with every spending move the city has made in my absence, but if they had stopped the street program after only one year I would have been at city hall with a pitchfork at the next meeting.
The main problem is that for a long time the City Commission thought that their primary purpose was keeping the mill levy as low as possible, progress or no. While other cities incrementally raised taxes during the good times and made progress and made their cities something people wanted to stay in, our City Hall didn't understand that eventually you do pay for all that not paying.
I suspect people who Commissions past trusted to tell them which way the wind is blowing never gave them an accurate weather forecast, as it's easier to always tell people what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. Now we're at a point where people gripe what a mess the town has become, but gripe even harder when there is any spending to clean up the mess.
P.S. Dan - don't feel too bad about my assessment of negligent generations past - based on my experiences from the last year or two, my generation is all to happy to follow the exact same path, though they do talk a good game.
P.S., if no cuts had been made, the mill levy would have had to be increased 15.3 mills, and that's with no additions from last years budget.
It's really all about planning and timing your capital expenditures!
I moved away from here for twenty years, so I don't know what all transpired while I was gone, but
I suggest the public look at who has been on the city commission the longest, and ask why we are backwards on this, as they are the ones who really are responsible for the mess Fort Scott is in.
Even so, you cannot make up for past mistakes by spending money you don't have now( if this were so, then theoretically we could have the highest standards of living, become prosperous and live in Pleasantville by taking on more debt), or requiring more from the people at such a critical time regarding the state of the economy here and throughout the country.
That some sort of mill levy increase was necessary is not doubted. I'm not surprised in the least. What is scary is just where and how it will end, considering the laws of diminishing returns.
States,counties,municipalities all over America are finding out that there is a threshold to the amount of taxes that the people can bear before throwing in the towel.
The economy is not on it's way to recovery any time soon and we haven't hit bottom yet. You(we) are bound to see the most tumultuous economic times of both our generations soon.
You'll see.
psumusic_mjh(?), I've written my share of letters to the editor about city issues, but I don't think it's my place any more - you seem able to get your opinions out in a clear and intelligent way, so I leave future letters to the editor up to you. My only wish is that I had let that rant out a little earlier, but what can ya do? If you are working in Fort Scott now, I encourage you to move there if you aren't already living there and get involved. I think there is still a lot of promise and possibility for Fort Scott, but if my generation - the young professionals - keep giving lip to involvement but no action, it's time to fold the tent up.
Dan, I actually agree with you on it all being a matter of timing, but if I had just said "We need to wait until things are better" during my four years - the latter two of which being the only years where any significant sort of progress was possible - my record would be a big patch of nothing, no different from what had come before. At least there is a *little* bit on there now - not much, and maybe 10 years from now it won't count for anything, but for now, it's there.
I would agree that it is time for the citizens of Fort Scott to step up and keep in mind that when people that don't live in the city, like Nick Graham (sorry Nick but you don't live here anymore), well, their opinion tends not to have a lot of importance.
Nowhere in this article was it ever mentioned just what the total budget for 2010 is in dollars. The Fort Scott Tribune failed to post the 2009 city budget total as well.
Why?