High salaries suck budgets dry A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to study the payroll of the fourth floor at City Hall. The column generated a lot of comments and questions. So I decided to do some additional digging for salaries and discovered some interesting facts. I know that you don’t want to read a list of everybody who works for the City and what they earn, so I was selective in my quest. I wanted to know who the top 100 wage earners were in the city and what they earned in the year 2007. The surprising fact is that most of the top earners are the Pompano Beach Firemen/Paramedics. In fact they all are in the top 60 percent of the top 100 wage earners. I now wonder how that can be, since City Commissioner Kay McGinn is always speaking nonsensically about firefighters as the chief reason she wants “affordable housing”. Now that Amendment One has passed in the January 29th primary (the one that supposedly approves property tax relief), it appears that all residents in all of the municipalities will see significant cuts in their city’s budget, at least for the next year or so. In fact, as I understand it, at least half of the $94 million in spending cuts in Broward County government next year will be in the regional law enforcement and the South Florida jail system. That will affect Pompano Beach since we use BSO as our chief law enforcement department and have the female jails in our community. If you were paying attention, County commissions vowed last Tuesday that the Broward Sheriff’s Office must share equally in the cuts that they will make in services, including libraries and parks, animal control and environmental protection. In fact, pretty much everything except politicians’ salaries and unionized workers’ wages. That dire prediction comes despite Gov. Charlie Crist’s promise that law enforcement would not be harmed if voters approved property tax relief, which they did. He forgot to talk about the trickle down theory of Reagan economics. Budget planners at the county and city level have purchased short pencils with long erasers. But, you ask, what does that have to do with the top 100 earners in the city of Pompano. NOTHING. They are at the top because of either union contracts or because the city administration has given each of these employees annual, merit or bonus increases. And there is nothing we can do about this. In private industry, we have seen the management of a company or industry that is doing poorly ask for givebacks. We have seen that move in the automobile industry, the airline industry, and major international leaders in other sectors.o But you never see any move or any attempt by municipal workers to give back in order to protect fellow workers’ jobs. When you study municipal workers, never does any wage or annual salary get trimmed or even get an offer to trim. In fact, in our city, we have Keith Chadwell, Pompano’s City Manager, hiring to fill vacant positions at breakneck speed, as if budget were of no concern. On a county level, that is troublesome because on January 29, the voters, by passing Amendment One, approved a $55 million decline in property taxes in Broward County. Factor in a $8 million increase in costs to add last year’s employee raises into this year’s salary base. As a result of the slowdown in the real estate market and other sectors of the local economy, it is estimated there will be a $7 million decline in recording fees, a $6 million increase in fuel costs, a $4 million decline in sales tax revenue, a $4 million decline in earned interest income, and $1 million decline in state financial aid. Add in $4 million in additional costs for parks and libraries being built as a result of voters’ approval of bond issues. There are additional concerns not yet factored into any budget questions. A major concern is (or should be) whether the tax value of properties will continue to decline because of the ongoing real estate slump. Bean counters claim that a five percent decline in values will require an additional $40 million cut in local budgets. In Pompano we still have an unsettled Firefighter/Paramedic situation and there is no prediction what this will cost. The union wants COLA and a possible three-year increase in the DROP program. There has been no official word from our city manager but my sources in the county are estimating a $1.9 million to $2.9 million shortfall this coming year. Brian Donovan has not yet released figures (not even unofficial figures) to Pompano’s city commissioners, but everybody knows our revenue income will be less than last year. Not only do the city commissioners need to be informed, but so do the citizens whom the City serves, and who pay the bills. I might point out that many citizens understand the budget better than our elected officials, whose claims to fame are based on popularity and ability to raise campaign dollars – not on comprehension of economics. This will soon become a very tough year, so I invite you to take a look at the top 100 earners in 2007 – and wonder what is in store for 2009 when the annual budget is prepared this summer.