Danville’s Forgotten Funds : $737,950

Danville City Council, and City residents, learn of new-found money-$1.5 million.  Ho, ho, ho It’s magic you know, Never believe it’s not so..

Great news, right?  What is truly amazing is that $737, 950 of this  money comes from a “forgotten” account.  OMG, how do you forget about over $700,000!  How can one explain (with a straight face) that it was just forgotten?   I cannot help but interject here my personal opinion that if it were “truly” forgotten then someone is not doing a good job of looking out after taxpayer money (my money and your money).

I believe that citizens of Danville deserve and expect better from those in charge of our hard-earned money.  We are a City full of citizens doing their best to just get by, day-to-day, paycheck to paycheck.   The recent City Council Election was decided by  a meager voter turnout of around 20% of registered voters-many feel frustrated that no matter what they do, whom they vote for, things remain the same.  I can guarantee that this new announcement will do nothing to promote confidence and will frustrate many more.

There is a bright side and I would be remiss if I did not mention it-The City Manager would like to use the new funds (some of the $5.1 million are from higher tax collections) to offset the amount in the proposed budget to be moved from utilities.  I often remark that utilities should not be used to balance the budget, it is a backdoor tax.  While a reduction is not stopping it, this can be seen as a step in the right direction!  We cannot continue to balance the budget using utilities.

Taxpayers must demand, no, they should should expect that those in leadership and administrative positions do what they are elected or hired to do– be attentive stewards of taxpayer funds and do what is best for the City as a whole.