Board of Aldermen 06-11-2019 Page 10
Alderman Klee
And | agree $3.00 a household is not a lot but | don’t want the public to think that their tax bill is only going
to go up $3.00. Their tax bill is going to go up a little bit more because it is a little less than 3%, that’s
what it is going to go up. But | agree, the only difference is the $3.00. And | am not disagreeing with this
$65,000.00. | came in saying “probably not” but | am listening. | do think, and as a person who has been
playing crossing guard for the past couple weeks because we are down 6 % crossing guards; | understand
that the school has its issues. They are not down that because they can’t afford it, they are down that
because they can’t hire anybody. But | do understand that there are some big issues within the school
and so on. | am not saying that | will say “no” to this. But | am concerned that we are just doing here and
there. My hope is that next year that the State passes the budget and we see some increased funds in the
second year of that budget. But in the meantime | do have some issues with nickel and dime and so on.
But | just need to say that. Thank you.
Alderman Dowd
When | first started into the budget and had discussions with the Mayor and others, we set a goal of trying
to keep the tax rate under 3% because two things were killing us. One was the 11%, the $3 million dollar
increase in health insurance, because we pay a lot more than that, but it is a $3 million dollar increase.
That’s normally the increase in the entire budget just about. The other thing is the lack of State funding,
not saying anything against any of the Reps here because | know they all support increased funding.
Hopefully from what I’ve read, there is a change that we will be getting more State help and things might
be better. We also have City employees that are pursuing reducing the $3 million dollar health impact so
that bodes well perhaps for next year. | supported the paras because as the liaison to the Board of
Education and having close contact with a lot of teachers and people who work in the School District,
including people who have my ear quite closely, like my daughter, they are woefully short of paras. Two is
not going to even put a dent in it; but as long as it stayed under 3% and we could add 2 paras, | was OK
with it. That’s why | went and checked on just exactly where we were, the 3 digit level. And so | am going
to support this. | think that let’s work on the amendment and then we will have to work on the entire budget
as amended.
Alderman Jette
| just want to clarify that the amended budget that we are voting on includes, does it include not only the
paras that Alderman Kelly is talking about but the ELL teachers that the Mayor talked about?
Alderman Dowd
Yes.
President Wilshire
That it is in contingency Alderman Jette. $200,000.00 in contingency for that purpose.
Alderman Jette
So this amended budget includes that?
Alderman Dowd
Absolutely.
President Wilshire
It does.
