The 2013 budget passed at the 9/17/12 Council meeting:

8/30/12 - At the Special Budget Workshop , Council instructed Mayor Reagor and City Manager Finley DeGraffenried not to raise tax rate.

9/17 @ 7:27pm - Councilwoman assures citizens: "We are not raising taxes. Ad Valorem Taxes [property taxes] will not be raised"

9/17 @ 7:30pm - Councilwoman: "I spent a long time going over the budget this afternoon"

9/17 @ 7:31pm - 2013 budget passes 4-0.

9/17 @ 7:34 - Mayor Reagor says "We know what we're doing here ... No tax rate increase"

9/17 @ 7:36 - Increase in revenue from property taxes of $5400 passes 4-0

9/17 @ 7:38 - Increase in tax rate of .9% passes 4-0

How does this happen? When confronted by a citizen, Mayor Reagor nervously explains that it is only a .0034% increase. What happens to people when their chairs are raised 2' above everyone else's? Why can't they treat our money as carefully as their own? $5,400 is real money. A great trip to Hawaii is less than $5,400 and they would study all options to get that down. This casual disregard for our money leads to spending $200 a shirt for staff - $1600 total, $6,000 to close a gate at the cemetery, $99,000 on overtime, $3,000,000 due to a bad decision at the sewer plant (under Mayor Roger Pinckney), or $7,000,000 on a water source.

Well, it started with a deficit budget City Manager Finley DeGraffenried proposed to Council. To balance the budget, they spent more, collected more taxes, charged more for water, and cut the police budget. Despite numerous specific recommendations by citizens to cut spending, they couldn't - except for the $200 shirts and only because they were caught.

So, how are they spending our money?

Half,49%, is spent on mission critical activities - water, electrical, police, and fire. 12% is spent on things that make our town a home - parks, swimming pool, golf course, airport. And 38% is overhead - staff. You could cut this spending in half and most citizens wouldn't notice. Water would flow, lights would work, and the police and fire department would protect us. Yet, Finley, Mayor Reagor, and Council couldn't find anything to cut? There was no waste to be found? This is pathetic.

There is the same imbalance in the average salaries of mission critical employees who keep the city running.

Here is an idea, move some red money to green and fix more potholes, replace more old pipes, repair the dam, fix the playground equipment, keep the pool open longer, ...