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    • Apr 7, 2018
    • 6 min read

Bisbee Wire/Council budget work session/who's running/taxes/politics/wordplay2018 April #11

Hello,

The budget process begins in earnest with the work session Tuesday. The background paper details the timeline for the budget process with dates of sessions.

These hearing dates  4/10, 4/18, 4/25, 5/2, 5/10 are the opportunity to get your voice heard in areas of interest to you. It is at these sessions that revenue estimates, based on past years and how much money has come in this year, will be used as the basis for which spending levels for all departments will be addressed, modified, and tentatively allocated.

Every year spending is tight, but this year will likely see the some very difficult tradeoffs. These issues are the crux of the budget process. For instance..if you would like to see the library open on Saturday where will the dough for that come from? Garbage pickups stretched to every 10 days? One less police officer? Sell a park? Increase fees on events? Don't replace a worn out vehicle. Enterprise funds?

These are the kind of spending trade-offs that mark the budget process. The city also needs more revenue; where is it going to come from? More tourism? Raising taxes? Economic development? It takes money to make money...where is the money going to come from to attract new revenue? (Go here for some suggestions by Councilperson Dunn http://az-bisbee.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_04032018-226 and here for other council person suggestions: http://www.myheraldreview.com/news/community/bisbee-gets-creative-to-fill-budget-shortfalls/article_fecf6c7a-3963-11e8-89d9-1f0b87913a31.html The huge financial outlay, about one fifth of the total budget, for Public Safety Pensions is dragging the city down. The legislature has done nothing about it. Our representatives, all Repugnicans, have done nothing about it. Until it is dealt with comprehensively, Bisbee will continue to be financially strapped.

 fred

................................ COUNCIL AGENDA

Tuesday April 10, 5:00 Bldg G at 1415 Melody Lane Background here: http://bisbeeaz.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_04102018-2301.     

Note that the Charter says the budget must be presented to Council before the second meeting in May (15th). Consequently the time lines are important. 1. Presentation and Discussion of the Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2018-2019; Budget Training. Robert Smith, City Manager

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............................... BISBEE ROUNDUP

The Whiff of Recall? Councilperson Bill Higgins (Ward 1) is the target of a possible recall. David Russell, owner of the Bisbee Tour Co has pulled papers for a recall. The city clerk has not received the application back yet, so it is not an actual recall. An application has to be turned in and then a recall number is assigned before signatures can be collected according to City Clerk Ashlee Coronado. Until then, the reason for the recall is unknown. ......................... Potential candidates that have pulled election packets Another name in the Mayor race. Last week, Cynthia Conroy took out a packet for a possible second run for mayor. Other packets out : Mayor...David Smith Ward 1...Frank Davis (incumbent), Vincente Abril Ward 2...Doug Dunn (incumbent), Joni Giacomino Ward 3...Anna Cline (incumbent), Richard Hannigan

Only those candidates whose packets are turned in by May 30 with forms filled and valid signatures, will be on the ballot. Until then, all are maybes and wannabes. ........................ Local guys motorcycle trip to South Africa thanks to Chuck Feil for this A year ago, Curt Stetter and I, along with several other Moto adventure friends ventured off to South Africa. A Moto adventure that took us from Johannesburg, Kruger NP, Swaziland, and down the coast to Capetown. Curt wrote the article and I did the photography for the article.  Here is the link in this months BMWMOA magazine. http://issuu.com/bmwmoa/docs/04-18on_final_ce37021f0bb6a6?e=32475501/59727095 ......................... He said, She said Last issue I wrote about a new BRP board appointed. And wrote about something that was said, after the meeting, about Donna Pulling at a local bank. (see the Wire 2018 April #10) (Ms. Pulling has been outspoken in her criticism of the Board and in fact  was instrumental in a recall of the BRP board for procedural reasons. She also was active on Facebook intimating that Mayor David Smith was somehow involved and speculating that the City wanted to take over the Royale. He wasn't and they don't.)

In an email exchange she disputed the truth of what was said about her and demanded a retraction and an apology from me. I said I wouldn't retract what I had written and would not apologize for what someone else said.  I offered to print a short account from her. After initially declining saying it wasn't my business why she was at the bank, she sent me the statement below telling why she was at the bank. Here it is, lightly edited for brevity. "On Mar 26 I attended a meeting where KBRP BOD's resigned.  The Board President, Andy Haratyk, handed me the resignation letter addressed to Harry Wolters and myself... I read it to the 40+ people attending....  That night, it was suggested to me by several KBRP members that I deliver the resignation letter to the bank where Andy was to be appointed sole signatory on the KBRP bank accounts before his resignation became effective on April 1. The following day, I delivered the resignation letter to the Washington Federal Bank Manager Dora Decastro.  I did not represent myself as a board member nor did I ask to be placed as a signer on the KBRP accounts. Statements made by Mr. Haratyk that I did otherwise were his own fabrications and unfortunately reported as fact without verification by Fred Miller." End of story about a woman not in an official capacity of any organization who, for some unknown reason, delivered a letter about an organization to a local bank.

......................... RESOURCES

NONPROFITS SOME DOUGH MAY BE YOURS https://www.tiaadifferencemaker100.org ................................ HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FACEBOOK DATA Your free information is worth $86 to Facebook. See what they are selling of yours. https://www.cnet.com/videos/how-to-download-your-facebook-data/?ftag=CAD49a2b7e&bhid=24867379272108267615610596432948


............ TAXES

THE EFFECT OF THE TAX LAW ON INDIVIDUALS "About two-thirds of taxpayers will receive a tax cut from the individual income tax provisions of the TCJA in 2018. Most (70 percent) households in thelowest income quintile will not see a reduction in their individual income taxes. Conversely, about 65  percent of households in the second income quintile will see a reduction in their individual income taxes, as will over 80 percent of households in the middle, and higher income quintiles. The individual income tax cuts, relative to after tax income, tilt in favor of high income taxpayers, particularly  those in the 95th-99th percentiles of the income distribution." http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/effect-tcja-individual-income-tax-provisions-across-income-groups-and-across-states/full

................ POLITICS

THE CHANGING STRUCTURE OF POLITICAL CONFLICT Thomas Piketty, work focuses on wealth and inequality, most particularly in his book Capital in the 21st Century. In the following work, he details what is necessary to challenge wealth accumulation. His work tends to be dense and scholastic, but well worth reading. Below his url is a popular article interpreting this paper. "In the 1950s-1960s,the vote for left-wing (socialist-labour-democratic) parties was associated with lower education and lower income voters. It has gradually become associated with higher education voters, giving rise to a “multiple-elite” party systemin the 2000s-2010s: high-education elites now vote for the “left”, while high-income/high-wealth elites still vote for the “right” (though less and less so). I argue that this can contribute to explain rising inequality and the lack of democratic response to it, as well as the rise of “populism”. http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Piketty2018.pdf?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=The+Resistance+Now&utm_term=269683&subid=20881720&CMP=ema_resistance

Go here if you would like an interpretation of Piketty's paper where the commentator suggests that Piketty paper supports the view that Bernie Sanders strategy was right during the 2016 election. https://www.salon.com/2018/03/27/pikettys-new-paper-vindicates-bernie-sanders-electoral-strategy/?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=The+Resistance+Now&utm_term=269683&subid=20881720&CMP=ema_resistance

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YIKES! TRUMP TRADE WAR CLEVERLY PUTS CHINA IN CONTROL China holds $1.17 Trillion in U.S. treasuries as of the end of January, and selling them is a potential nuclear option should a trade war get out of hand. They are the second largest owner of U.S. government bonds after the Federal Reserve. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-treasuries/china-holding-treasuries-keeps-nuclear-option-in-u-s-trade-war-idUSKCN1HB34M?ex_cid=SigDig

.............................. DID YOU KNOW?

GUN DEATHS RESPONSIBLE FOR 75.4% OF ALL HOMICIDES "The numbers underscore how the violent-crime problem is, now more than ever, a gun-violence problem. After years of record sales, firearms are more prevalent in society than at any time in recent history. The high number of civilian guns in circulation means more opportunities for guns to be diverted into the hands of people at risk of harming others with them, potentially altering the landscape of American crime." https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/04/02/guns-are-now-responsible-for-the-largest-share-of-american-homicides-in-over-80-years-federal-mortality-data-show/?ex_cid=SigDig&utm_term=.cf6c65f661d8

<><<><><><><><><><>< THE MYTH OF CRIMINAL IMMIGRANTS The link between immigration and criminals is imaginary. Immigration has increased, crime has decreased. This study shows the data. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/03/30/the-myth-of-the-criminal-immigrant?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sprout&utm_source=twitter&ex_cid=SigDig <><><><><>><><><><><> AZ ECONOMY EXCEEDS NATIONAL AVERAGE https://azbigmedia.com/arizonas-economy-growth-jobs-ranked-above-national-average/

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THE ANSWER MAN ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS Questions of burning interest answered by satirist Calvin Trillin. Also Includes this memorable quote: "Cohen expected us to believe that he gave Daniels a hundred and thirty thousand dollars of his own money to keep quiet about something that hadn’t occurred." Other questions such as were the 'fine people' in the Charlottesville march every found? Will there be peace in the middle east if Jared Kustner is booted? Who is Dainty Digits Donny? https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/dear-answer-man-trump-edition

<><><>><><><><><><><><> WORDPLAY A yearly contest for changing the meaning of a word by changing one letter. these are some of the 2018 submissions. Go here for more: http://www.washingtonpostsmensainvitational.com/2018-submissions/

Mosquinto...an insect with below average eyesight Basshole...an especially unpleasant fish Leotard...a dumb lion Tweewt...a message from an ambidextrous palindromist Sprig Chicken...Rosemary's baby Disco-bobulation..confusing and uncomfortable movements of the head while listening to 70's dance music Blaboratory...the place where speech therapists work Fartled...a person startled by a loud fart Fuxed...when you thought you had fixed something but only made it worse Ammpunition...when your supply of ammo is cut off Sargasm...intense pleasure when conveying irony and contempt for one's fellow man

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