Click on the charts above to see larger view of them if needed. But then again maybe you shouldn't, you might not like what you see.
BUFFALO ELEMENTRY GREAT SCHOOLS RANKING
Sunday, May 24, 2009
ARE THESE RANKINGS ACCEPTABLE?
Click on the charts above to see larger view of them if needed. But then again maybe you shouldn't, you might not like what you see.
BUFFALO ELEMENTRY GREAT SCHOOLS RANKING
Thursday, May 14, 2009
"MORE INTERESTING CRAP"
Instead of taking jabs at residents, and their geographic residential neighborhood locations.....Let’s take a stab at the issues themselves.Can anyone come up with any reason why the Town of Buffalo should pay for the energy consumption at city hall that exceeds their historical annual average? Besides the obvious reason of “The hospital administrator wants it that way.”
There are three other Town Board members perfectly capable of making and reaching an equitable solution to this issue. Give them a chance without interference. The conflict of interest reeks. But taxpayers keep getting it fed to them by the shovels full.
Put a clause in the lease that the Hospital will meet the excess utility usage that is above the historical average upon the completion of one year of lease. Set the lease up to adjust the corresponding ratio of utilities to reflect the new data upon the renewal of the lease.
Determine and agree upon the historical average usage of the utilities for the each type involved. It can be easily determined how many units of electricity are used on an annual basis. The same can be done with the gas. Put those numbers in the lease agreement. At the end of the year multiply the actual usage times the towns 40% share. If that number is more than the lease agreement number the town gets the difference returned to them for their overpayment of the utilities. If an overpayment is due to the town, multiply the number of units times the average cost of the units during that year. Use the new data to determine the new lease utility ratio splits. At that point the ratios may be different for electrical and gas. Put in the lease that if the overage is less than 10% then no adjustments shall be made.
If at all possible the Public Trust should be utilized to handle these affairs to prevent any negative impact on the Towns fiscal years’ budget. Put the lease money in the trust for unforeseen repairs and upgrades that might be needed. This is just about making good practical business sense because the Town of Buffalo is a business.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Are We Losing Our Marbles With The Municipal Budget?
Analogy of how a municipal budget works.
Every year the town gets with the auditor and he tells the town how much total money can be spent for the next fiscal year. That number is, for the most part, set in concrete. It doesn’t matter if you spend money and then get it back it still counts against the budget.
It is not a revolving budget. It is not like a credit card that has a limit on it. You don’t get to make payments on it and get to keep spending as long as you stay under your credit limit.
Look at it like this. The auditor says you can spend 60 dollars for the whole year. At the start of the fiscal year to make sure you don’t go over budget he gives you two jars. One is completely empty and painted black where you can’t see in it. The second is clear glass and full of 60 marbles that represents each dollar you can spend. Now for each dollar you spend throughout the year you pull one marble out of the clear jar and put into the black jar and you never will see it again for the rest of that year.
Say you spend 5 dollars this month. You take 5 marbles out of the clear jar and put them into the black jar and you can’t see them any more. Let’s say that month someone pays their bill owed to the city of 6 dollars. That money goes into the bank and no marbles are put into the clear jar.
Then the next month you pay more bills using money in the bank and use up marbles from the clear jar. You receive more revenue and you put that money in the bank. You continue this cycle until all the marbles in the clear jar are gone or the end of the fiscal year comes, which ever is first.
When all the marbles from the clear jar are gone your expenditures are finished. You can’t get marbles out of the black jar and use them again. And the money that went into the bank didn’t come with any marbles. You can't buy more marbles with the money in the bank either. You only get more marbles again after next years audit and the auditor tells you how many you can have.
Even though you know there is money in the bank and you know that there are marbles in the black jar your budget is determined by the clear jar. When you use all of your marbles from it, there is no more spending allowed. Next year you will get the marbles back out of the black jar and you might get extra ones or the auditor may take a few away, based upon the revenues received.
Trustees should understand and keep track of our marbles in the clear jar all of the time.
Every year the town gets with the auditor and he tells the town how much total money can be spent for the next fiscal year. That number is, for the most part, set in concrete. It doesn’t matter if you spend money and then get it back it still counts against the budget.
It is not a revolving budget. It is not like a credit card that has a limit on it. You don’t get to make payments on it and get to keep spending as long as you stay under your credit limit.
Look at it like this. The auditor says you can spend 60 dollars for the whole year. At the start of the fiscal year to make sure you don’t go over budget he gives you two jars. One is completely empty and painted black where you can’t see in it. The second is clear glass and full of 60 marbles that represents each dollar you can spend. Now for each dollar you spend throughout the year you pull one marble out of the clear jar and put into the black jar and you never will see it again for the rest of that year.
Say you spend 5 dollars this month. You take 5 marbles out of the clear jar and put them into the black jar and you can’t see them any more. Let’s say that month someone pays their bill owed to the city of 6 dollars. That money goes into the bank and no marbles are put into the clear jar.
Then the next month you pay more bills using money in the bank and use up marbles from the clear jar. You receive more revenue and you put that money in the bank. You continue this cycle until all the marbles in the clear jar are gone or the end of the fiscal year comes, which ever is first.
When all the marbles from the clear jar are gone your expenditures are finished. You can’t get marbles out of the black jar and use them again. And the money that went into the bank didn’t come with any marbles. You can't buy more marbles with the money in the bank either. You only get more marbles again after next years audit and the auditor tells you how many you can have.
Even though you know there is money in the bank and you know that there are marbles in the black jar your budget is determined by the clear jar. When you use all of your marbles from it, there is no more spending allowed. Next year you will get the marbles back out of the black jar and you might get extra ones or the auditor may take a few away, based upon the revenues received.
Trustees should understand and keep track of our marbles in the clear jar all of the time.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
DO WE STILL HAVE A POLICE CHIEF / FREEBIES FOR THE NEW CLINIC
Do we still have a police chief? After coming out of executive session a motion carried instructing the new Mayor Lewis Carpenter to act upon what was discussed in executive session. That could mean anything including firing of the Police Chief.
There seems to be a new trend when coming out the executive session, that is, to make a motion to do something they decided to do in executive session. More secrets? So based on what happened at the last meeting one could assume that Buffalo may be without a police chief since no one knows what was said in the executive session and they can’t talk about it. Only leaves one to speculate what they are doing to him.
Hopefully Jeremy can avoid being contacted by Lewis long enough to conclude his investigation of the toddler’s death. So if anyone sees or hears from Jeremy please be sure to find out if he is still our police chief. Will he still be the police chief after June 30?
Has Jeremy endured more executive sessions than any former police chief in the history of Buffalo? He has only been here a little over six months. Could it be he is doing exactly what he was hired to do? This is approaching the edge of turning into a hostile work environment for him. Just hope we never lose him to the petty shenanigans coming from members of the Board and City Hall. Jeremy comes across as a pretty thick chested guy, will these things deflect off of him easily? When you see him, tell him you appreciate everything is doing for our community.
A special meeting will be held on May 11th to discuss and review the HCCH lease agreement. Take special notice in how the City Clerk, who is responsible for the posted agenda, left the word "ACTION" off of the description. This is a famous observable fact that City Hall uses to control the direction of certain activities by hindering the options that are available for the board to utilize. Don’t want the board to be able to do anything… conveniently leave the word "ACTION" off of the agenda item...that will tie their hands.
At issue is clarifying who is going to pay for the utility bills and how those will be handled. Also the taxpayers of Buffalo may be getting short changed on the square footage that is used to calculate the monthly rent. 2 out of 5 trustees work for the hospital so it will be very interesting to see where their true interests lie, as they take their seat to represent the Town of Buffalo as elected Trustees. Will there be a conflict of interest?
It is hard to think of any sustainable business that survives by giving away their office space for free. Furthermore, most renters pay for their own utility bills. Now if someone has done an analysis of the historic utility usage of the building and then uses that data to set the rental rate that would be different. Since there is no way of knowing what the new clinic will use, it is only fitting to make them take care of their own utilities. Instead the preference now will be to pull numbers out of their butt each month as to what their fair share will be. Taxpayer subsidizing a private clinics utilities, what a concept.
In conclusion on this topic, having the town pay the bills for the hospital will have a detrimental effect on the operational budget of the town. When the Town has this much on its plate, using up part of the Town’s budget to pay the clinic’s utilities is incomprehensible. The public trust should be the entity handling this lease to remove the effects that it may have on the Town’s budget. “The Public Trust”…will that turn out to be an oxymoron for Buffalo?
There seems to be a new trend when coming out the executive session, that is, to make a motion to do something they decided to do in executive session. More secrets? So based on what happened at the last meeting one could assume that Buffalo may be without a police chief since no one knows what was said in the executive session and they can’t talk about it. Only leaves one to speculate what they are doing to him.
Hopefully Jeremy can avoid being contacted by Lewis long enough to conclude his investigation of the toddler’s death. So if anyone sees or hears from Jeremy please be sure to find out if he is still our police chief. Will he still be the police chief after June 30?
Has Jeremy endured more executive sessions than any former police chief in the history of Buffalo? He has only been here a little over six months. Could it be he is doing exactly what he was hired to do? This is approaching the edge of turning into a hostile work environment for him. Just hope we never lose him to the petty shenanigans coming from members of the Board and City Hall. Jeremy comes across as a pretty thick chested guy, will these things deflect off of him easily? When you see him, tell him you appreciate everything is doing for our community.
A special meeting will be held on May 11th to discuss and review the HCCH lease agreement. Take special notice in how the City Clerk, who is responsible for the posted agenda, left the word "ACTION" off of the description. This is a famous observable fact that City Hall uses to control the direction of certain activities by hindering the options that are available for the board to utilize. Don’t want the board to be able to do anything… conveniently leave the word "ACTION" off of the agenda item...that will tie their hands.
At issue is clarifying who is going to pay for the utility bills and how those will be handled. Also the taxpayers of Buffalo may be getting short changed on the square footage that is used to calculate the monthly rent. 2 out of 5 trustees work for the hospital so it will be very interesting to see where their true interests lie, as they take their seat to represent the Town of Buffalo as elected Trustees. Will there be a conflict of interest?
It is hard to think of any sustainable business that survives by giving away their office space for free. Furthermore, most renters pay for their own utility bills. Now if someone has done an analysis of the historic utility usage of the building and then uses that data to set the rental rate that would be different. Since there is no way of knowing what the new clinic will use, it is only fitting to make them take care of their own utilities. Instead the preference now will be to pull numbers out of their butt each month as to what their fair share will be. Taxpayer subsidizing a private clinics utilities, what a concept.
In conclusion on this topic, having the town pay the bills for the hospital will have a detrimental effect on the operational budget of the town. When the Town has this much on its plate, using up part of the Town’s budget to pay the clinic’s utilities is incomprehensible. The public trust should be the entity handling this lease to remove the effects that it may have on the Town’s budget. “The Public Trust”…will that turn out to be an oxymoron for Buffalo?
Monday, May 4, 2009
Holy Flames Batman, They're Torching OUR Pocketbooks!!
This coming Town Board meeting is heating up to be an inferno of controversy. On the agenda is the proposal to establish charges for the fire department’s responses. The “Run Fee” policy proposal tentatively has amounts ranging from $300.00 to $400.00 penciled in for ALL RESPONSES. (fires or rescue….in town or out). The fire hydrant issue has been a hot topic for quite some time and this should only add more fuel to the fire.
Because of the hydrant issue our ISO rating, that many property insurances are based on, was sitting at an 8. That undesirable ISO rating may be causing your insurance premiums to be as much as 35% to 40% higher. The ISO rating is not solely tied to the fire hydrants. However, the flow rate of these hydrants could impact the rating. If our ISO rating were to be improved to a better class, a policy holder could see substantial savings in their annual premium. Because of the disrepair of the hydrants we may loose our good ISO rate an soon may be paying higher property insurance premiums.
Because of the hydrant issue our ISO rating, that many property insurances are based on, was sitting at an 8. That undesirable ISO rating may be causing your insurance premiums to be as much as 35% to 40% higher. The ISO rating is not solely tied to the fire hydrants. However, the flow rate of these hydrants could impact the rating. If our ISO rating were to be improved to a better class, a policy holder could see substantial savings in their annual premium. Because of the disrepair of the hydrants we may loose our good ISO rate an soon may be paying higher property insurance premiums.
UPDATE: The ISO rating for Buffalo has within the last year been up graded to a 6 from an 8. Because of this new ISO rating, a sample insurance rate for a 4 bedroom house in Buffalo, the premium was reduced by 27%. A policy that used to cost $1330 per year dropped to $971. That is a saving of $359 per year on this example!!
Now our elected officials may be so proud of our fire suppressing system they may think it is fitting to charge us a fee for a response. If you don’t have all of your property insured and you can’t pay the fee what happens next. Could they put the response fee on your property taxes? If you couldn't’t pay the $300 to $400 response fee how can you pay the extra amount on your property taxes? Could the municipal government then get a tax deed on your property because you couldn't’t pay your response fee? You betcha!!
What are we getting for our city sales taxes and monthly municipal bills? The town of Buffalo has the highest possible sales tax rate in the state. The town of Buffalo has year after year carried over moneys from the previous year’s budget into the next fiscal year only to have that extra money put into CD’s. Would it have been nice if the money would have been put into the fire suppression system that we have in place to better our ISO ratings? Would it have been nice to get a break on our insurance premiums before we get scorched by the flames of these response fees? Update: Not all insurance companies have the new ISO ratings in their database and many policies may not have had their premiums adjusted, that is if they use the ISO rating at all.
And what about those who can’t afford to insure their properties? They are not going to call the fire department for help when they know they will get burned again with a bill from the town. Will people be endangering their lives and property because they know how hard it is, in this economic downturn, to keep a loaf of bread on the table let alone shell out 3 to 4 hundred bucks for a response fee?
Now our elected officials may be so proud of our fire suppressing system they may think it is fitting to charge us a fee for a response. If you don’t have all of your property insured and you can’t pay the fee what happens next. Could they put the response fee on your property taxes? If you couldn't’t pay the $300 to $400 response fee how can you pay the extra amount on your property taxes? Could the municipal government then get a tax deed on your property because you couldn't’t pay your response fee? You betcha!!
What are we getting for our city sales taxes and monthly municipal bills? The town of Buffalo has the highest possible sales tax rate in the state. The town of Buffalo has year after year carried over moneys from the previous year’s budget into the next fiscal year only to have that extra money put into CD’s. Would it have been nice if the money would have been put into the fire suppression system that we have in place to better our ISO ratings? Would it have been nice to get a break on our insurance premiums before we get scorched by the flames of these response fees? Update: Not all insurance companies have the new ISO ratings in their database and many policies may not have had their premiums adjusted, that is if they use the ISO rating at all.
And what about those who can’t afford to insure their properties? They are not going to call the fire department for help when they know they will get burned again with a bill from the town. Will people be endangering their lives and property because they know how hard it is, in this economic downturn, to keep a loaf of bread on the table let alone shell out 3 to 4 hundred bucks for a response fee?
"Honey! Run and get garden hose drug into kitchen...Skillet caught fire again!"
"Hurry every chance you get... don't want the firemen to get here first" "Can't afford Em".
Maintain the new ISO rating before setting run fees! Continue to keep the ISO rating to help us save money on our insurance premiums! Then maybe you will get more money from people pledging that savings to the Buffalo Fireman’s Association than the fees you want to charge the taxpayers of the community.
Maintain the new ISO rating before setting run fees! Continue to keep the ISO rating to help us save money on our insurance premiums! Then maybe you will get more money from people pledging that savings to the Buffalo Fireman’s Association than the fees you want to charge the taxpayers of the community.
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