Wednesday, January 30, 2008
News Shirley: City shortfall is $70 million
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Wed, Jan 30, 2008 at 10:30 PM
Franklin addresses City Council Wednesday.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
For more than an hour Wednesday, Mayor Shirley Franklin fielded sometimes contentious questions from City Council members regarding the surprise budget shortfall the city is facing. While CL had first reported the figure in the range of $75 million to perhaps more than $100 million, Herronor pegged the estimate at $70 million.
There are two major reasons for the snafu: On the one hand, the city will spend about $41 million more than expected because of rising fuel costs, spiraling health-care expenses, unanticipated legal settlements and IRS penalties.
The rest of the problem is apparently explained by human error. Because of lousy accounting practices -- which Franklin took pains to emphasize were in place long before she got elected -- the city thought it had $21 million more in the bank than it actually did. And, finally, another $26 million in anticipated cash evaporated once bean-counters caught what Franklin described as a series of "flat-out mistakes," such as forgetting to account for the $8 million annual payment to Underground Atlanta. Oops.
The administration has ordered a hiring freeze and slashed discretionary spending, but the mayor deflected questions about whether a tax hike will be needed to correct the budget imbalance.
"We don't have an answer yet for how to close this shortfall," she said.
Comments (5)
Showing 1-5 of 5
How long have you been in office now? Still blaming the previous administration? You've been traveling a whole lot these days. Shirely, it's been a long time since you've been impressive.
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I voted for her twice and that was two times too many. She has abandoned this city... left it to it's own devices. She is useless and needs to go NOW. Our streets are a total mess... you can't drive a block without hitting a steel plate or pothole. Crime is out of control. The police moral is at an all-time low. And developers have been allowed to destroy our infrastructure so they can make tons of money building shoddy high rise condos. This city is a MESS and I blame Shirley.
So, did the $21 million just disappear or idid it never really exist? And if the policies pre-dated her, then why did it take six years to figure it out? Someone please do some reporting. And while it seems the Mayor can't hire a competent accountant, at least we know she's shrewd enough politically to dump this problem on the city council with no real sugestions for solving the problem. Let them take the heat for cutting more than 10% from the budget. What's the statute of limitations on that Time magazine best big city mayor thing?
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