the Controversial Committee Report
“We don’t raise sacred cows...we just butcher them.”
“Sweet and Sour”
While waiting to see if the city manager/city council places the $44M TIF funding for ARK on the September 6, 2018, agenda for approval, staff of the CCR will temporarily direct your attention to a couple items which might be of concern or interest to you.
Remember, nothing changes if one sits on their posterior and fails to register their thoughts or opinions with the elected officials who are responsible for conducting city business…with your tax dollars.
SWEET
”Shining Star”
Recently, dear readers, staff of the CCR alerted you to the fact that the Irving Toyota Music Factory, developed by ARK, was ranked 9th in the world for amphitheaters. Hold on to your seat. There is even better news afoot!
ARK has been informed they have been nominated as Amphitheater of the Year for 2018 by the International Entertainment Buyers Association (IEBA).
The above paragraph was printed in larger type in hopes the apparent blind and mute city manager and council members could clearly see the chaos, bad press, and reluctance to act as a genuine business partner with ARK...an outstanding firm that knows, better than the council does , how to run a business and be successful.
Hopefully, the IEBA organization will not need to interview the city manager or council members before the finalist is named on October 2, 2018. It would be another PR-tragedy for the IEBA group to hear the excessive whining, less than factual information, and bullying points the city manager and council members have concocted and spewed all over ARK.
Congrats ARK…you deserve this recognition for all the good you have done for Irving and putting Irving on the worldwide map of venue success!
“City Manager Honey Pot”
The city council recently completed the initial budget discussions for 2018-2019. While there will be more discussions before the tax rate and budget expenditures are approved, the time would be now to let them hear your thoughts on the upcoming tax rate.
If you have not been keeping up with higher appraisal rate scenario and what this will mean to your upcoming tax bill from the city, then read the following two articles from the DMN.
To quickly get to the point, the following chart, from the DMN, will provide a preview of what the city council will probably be doing.
Of course, the city council will be “crowing” that they haven’t raised your taxes should they maintain the Current Tax Rate! While this is a “Fake Talking Point,” you actually will be paying more in taxes utilizing this rate…due to higher appraisal values.
Isn’t this clear? If the city council maintains the Current Tax Rate ($59.4/$100 appraised value), then more bucks — 2.1% increase — will pour into city coffers due to these higher appraisal rates.
Should the city council utilize the Effective Tax Rate ($58.2/$100 appraised evaluation to garner the same revenue amounts as the current budget year, 2017-2018), then the city would collect an amount of tax bucks which shouldn’t scalp citizens.
One has to wonder if the city council will even consider a tax rate lower than the Effective Tax Rate! This would amount to a genuine reduction in the taxes you pay to the city. (Please don’t hold your breath on this happening!)
The tax rate setting is the first dollop of honey in the city manager’s honey pot. The second dollop in his pot is even less complicated.
While these numbers are churning in your brain synapses, the City of Irving will still be receiving a windfall of bucks, at the end of the year, due to tax collections for the current year.
How is the possible?
When the 2018-2019 budget is presented to the city council, the city manager will base his budget development numbers on an estimated percentage of tax revenues to be collected from residents. This very low collection figure will probably be around 96% collections.
However, the city’s historical numbers would reflect the annual percentage of actual tax collections crank out to be around 99+ percent. And, dear readers, this is a very large dollop of honey to use for non-budgeted, future discretionary spending, and special crony project expenditures by the city manager and city council. And these new expenditures, which were not considered or included in the original 2018-2019 budget, will allow the city manager and city council to spend more than what was originally budgeted.
But then, with the city manager and city council’s current political bullying of ARK, maybe all these extra bucks will be required to pay exorbitant legal fees to defend indefensible actions?!
Should you see a swarm of bees circling the city manager and city council members during their upcoming reviews of the budget and pending tax rate discussions, relax, as the bees are only attempting to collect what is rightfully theirs…honey confiscated from them.
Isn’t it time you helped the bees return the honey to their hive before the city manager and city council members suffer a sugar shock seizure involving your tax bucks?
SOUR #1
Stat…first aid required. Councilman John Danish probably needs to have first aid applied to his posterior. While he has been sitting on the “fence” and sliding down from one side and then the other over placing the ARK TIF funding measure on the upcoming city council agenda, the mass of splinters he has accumulated must be very discomforting…even for a recognized fence sitter.
Once all the splinters are removed, staff of the CCR would recommend he enter a rehab center to take the 12-step program on how to make decisions without sticking his finger in the air to judge the political winds. The rehab treatment would also reinforce his need to maintain any principles — of his ever present and unrelated rhetoric — and then stick with a decision once it is made. Contact: jcdanish@cityofirving.org
SOUR #2
Isn’t it amazing how some elected officials want to create rules, regulations and procedural processes, but due to their egotistical self-interest they believe these items are — for others, or the unwashed masses (their skewed opinion) — not for them to follow?
The city council currently has a dais seating arraignment which is designated to be in order by the Place the council member represents. For math deficient Aggies: Seats would be, in order, by Place 1, 2, 3, etc. The exception could be made for the mayor and mayor pro-team’s seating.
Would someone mind asking Councilman Alan Meagher why he might not want to sit by a particular council member?
This seems rather rude for him to personally lobby (in smoke filled rooms/bars?) the mayor or any other council members to park his posterior on the “throne” of his choosing. Really?!
Contact: ameagher@cityofirving.org
………………………………………Mark Holbrook
