When is a City of Greensboro Pay Raise Not a Pay Raise?

We learn over at Piedmont Publius that salaries are being increased, or "adjusted"; but we are supposed to believe it is not really a pay raise.  Councilman Thompson appropriately asks why there had been threats to cut basic services during the budget process if money can now be found for these increases.  And WFMY actually reports the story in an objective fashion.

Wonders never cease.

Comments

[Unemployed in Greensboro]

It is clear that our City Manager is living in his own world. As I am currently unemployed and have been since September of 2009 I think I can speak with some authority on this issue. Last week I followed up on one of the jobs that I had applied for. I was informed that the company had received over 200 applications for the position. If the positions in question at the city were advertised as open positions, I'll bet they could find new qualified employees willing to work for a salary amount less than these employees are presently being paid.

[Joe Guarino]

Unemployed, this is a classic example of city staff taking care of themselves and their own. You make a great point that the positions could be easily filled at a lower cost. But that is not how government works. Public employees collectively can turn out to be just another interest group vying for their piece of the tax dollar.

[George Hartzman]

As posted at Allen Johnson's:

Abner Doon

December 1, 2010 - 12:44 pm EST

I was under the impression security needs were a priority.

If some 2 million unemployed could lose benefits this month, and with certain knowledge that many will lose benefits next year with a Republican house, shouldn't the city be looking to increase the police force?

Does the city even know what next fiscal year's budget deficit looks like. Sorry, "shortfall".

Does anyone know how much cash the city has left to spend above the statutory minimums?

I did a sitdown with a few city employees for about an hour and they wouldn't tell me.

Does the city know what cuts are expected from the state's 2011/12 budget?

Does the city know what cuts are expected from Guilford County, which is certainly going to have a big squeeze come June?

Does the city know what the County's budget deficit is looking like?

Are city tax revenues expected to fall for the third year in a row?
.
.
City of Greensboro Net revenues minus Appropriated Fund Balances:

$410,080,337 in 08/09

$401,020,748 in 09/10

and $393,327,363 expected this fiscal year,

while drawing down $85,633,808 of savings in three years,
and borrowing $89,016,919 more in 2010/11.

What happened to cutting leaf pick up and crossing gaurds?

How did they end up spending $1,023,228 more this year than last year?

Are we expecting some more fairy money dust from the feds next year?

Are they expecting major growth, like Ireland's budget,
whose GDP is tracking -9.7%, but used +4.5% to get thier bailout?

A little transparency would be nice.

[Joe Guarino]

Thanks for a great post, George.

[Everest]

What I did learn today Joe, from Senator Sherrod Brown (D), was that extending unemployment benefits was the biggest economic stimulus we could have...that does far more to expand the economy than tax cuts so "millionaires can buy another new car that they already had the money for anyway." You and I can laugh over how silly this is (I mean, if this was true, why not simply spend HUNDREDS of billions on this "stimulus") but as a lame duck Congress tries to expand benefits AGAIN, I'm not so sure they don't actually believe this....

[Joe Guarino]

Oh, I am sure they do believe it, Everest, just as Rashad Young believes this is not a pay raise.

It all seems fairly delusional.