Board of Aldermen 06-11-2019 Page 9
Mayor Donchess
| think they voted again then; their original budget was higher, then | went over there, we talked about it.
They reduced their request to the ....
Alderman Dowd
Nut the $380,000.00 was in the budget book.
Mayor Donchess
So maybe it was in the budget book: but they amended their request. You could take that either way.
Alderman Clemons
| kind of look at that argument like if you have a child and he wants to buy the king size candy bar but you
tell him “No you can’t buy the king size candy bar but you can buy the regular one”. Then “OK, well I’d
rather a candy bar than no candy bar right”. So it is kind of like that cut that was done, was done so
because we had to fit into this 3% goal. And | think it was done very well and you know it was a good
budget that was presented, but it is missing a few things. It is off by a little bit; 3% to me | don’t think is
going to work. What is being presented in front of us right now, the amendment that is actually under that
3% and we are talking about on an average house, the average household of $300,000.00, which that is
average household in this City, we are talking about $3.00 more a year. Three bucks. | don’t understand
the opposition, | just don’t. If there is a taxpayer out there that $3.00 is going to be the difference between
them keeping their house and losing their house, then they have a lot bigger problems; there are bigger
problems out there for them.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
| am going to support this. | think that if you look at what is happening in communities and in school today,
we are aware of trauma that kids are coming to school with. We are aware of the importance of children
having an opportunity to talk about what is going on and to form relationships. | think since Alderman
Dowd and | were on the School Board years ago together, we and Alderman Clemons’ father and | were
on the School Board together, we have been talking about the need for counselors and even social
workers in the schools. | am not talking about just the high schools; | am talking about the early prevention
piece of having them available to our elementary schoolers. So | am going to support this. | think that the
benefit to the community, it can’t even be measured in terms of value. So | will support this.
Alderwoman Kelly
We talked through your concerns about you know the taxes and raising them; nobody wants to raise
taxes, we all live here, we all pay taxes here. I’ve been on the Budget Committee for 2 years in a row
which pales in comparison to a lot of people around this horseshoe. But every year we consistently hear
from every department that they are under-funded or level-funded. The Fire Department has not had an
increase other than wages for 14 years. So | think part of the budget is listening to them, hearing what
they are saying, trying to keep that in a reasonable place for everybody but also deciding year-to-year
what things can we invest in and keep going, because we can’t consistently stay at this level, as our
population grows, as our needs grow. We haven’t for a long time been able to continually make sure
people are at full force or have the resources that they need. So | advocate for the school because | have
a daughter in the school: she has a para that she works with. I’ve seen a lot of young families who have
left the district and said it was because it was the school not having enough resources, those types of
things. And that is my own personal experience, but | think that it is real and | think that we have to step
up and invest. And $3.00 a household is not a lot.
