Aurora's Budget Shell Game
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Aurora’s Budget Shell Game
We’ve all been there: short on cash at the end of the month, we use the money we
have to pay a utility bill and the minimum due on a credit card, and use a cash
advance from another credit card to pay the remaining monthly debt. Sadly, more
and more of us are in this position these days. Unfortunately, the City of Aurora
pays its’ bills much the same way and has been for the past 7 years.
Consider these facts: a proposed city budget for 2012 showed a $7.5 million shortfall
as of August 2011. After City Council met with the Aurora Police Association later
in the month, a deal was struck that ‘…would save the city about $40 million over
the next decade but it might also mean about 10 percent fewer cops on the street.’-
Aurora Sentinel, September 9. This deal left the city with a budget shortfall
of $2.5 million for 2012.
A month after these revelations a new twist to the Aurora budget debacle emerged:
‘Aurora City Council members decided to extend hours and bolster materials for Aurora’s
three libraries at their daylong budget workshop Oct. 1, and lawmakers also found
money to extend pool operations and increase funding for street maintenance.
The money for improvements came from the $1.8 million savings that resulted from
the modified police staffing agreement the city struck last month with the Aurora
Police Association.’-Aurora Sentinel, October 2
Here’s how it seems to me: City Council has ‘saved’ money by under- funding the
current requirement of 2 officers per 1,000 in population and budgeted those funds
to operate libraries and pools in Aurora, thus playing a budget shell game. (Note:
there are only 4 out of 7 remaining libraries in Aurora since the others were closed
in 2009 due to budget cuts)
As if this budget issue wasn’t complicated enough, I would like to ask how did City
Council come up with the $1.8 million to spend for city improvements if they had
$2.5 million in shortfalls for 2012 as of September 9, 2011?
To me, it sounds as if Aurora has a spendthrift government culture that has no respect
for the hard earned dollars of Aurora taxpayers. Both Councilman Steve Hogan and
Councilman Ryan Frazier have been a part of this culture for years
