By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 19, 2014) — Tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in council chambers, citizens and taxpayers receive their annual slap in the face from the mayor and the city council. THE PLANET refers to the annual “assume the position” exercise known as a tax classification hearing.

The hearing decides how much of the city tax levy should fall to homeowners and how much to businesses. They amount they need to raise was determined in June.

Mayor Wants Homeowners to Pay an Additional 5.3% in Taxes

The mayor will propose another hefty tax hike for both homeowners and businesses. This is the “other foot” that drops each November to pay for the ruinous budget proposed by the mayor and passed by the council in June. Notice how the rate hearings always come after the election. Gosh, can you guess why?

With the tax levy of $73,504,043, Mayor Dan Bianchi has set another ignominious and ruinous fiscal record. He wants homeowners to pay $18.06 per thousand of valuation, an increase of 5.3% from the previous year. This is nearly a dollar more than the rate for FY14. Business would pay more than double that rate at $36.62. That’s a 4.18% hike, up $1.45 from last year.

These rates, of course, must be approved by the council. Truth is, our Right Honorable Good Friends had their best chance to whack this irresponsible spending plan during the June budget hearings but did nothing. Now comes time to pay.

As a percentage share of the “full and fair cash valuation” of property, homeowners are assessed 78.4% of all value, with commercial (12.1%) and industrial (4.7%) accounting for 16.8%. Yes, homeowners are getting creamed. The remaining assessments come from open space and personal property.

The city has an allowable levy ceiling for FY15 of $81,964,865. Watch. The Suits will point out the $8.46 million in “excess levy capacity.” In other words, they could by law raise your taxes by that additional amount but, aping Mother Teresa, they don’t and brag about how “generous” they are to their enslaved subjects.

Don’t Be Fooled by the ‘Excess Levy Capacity’ B.S.

This “excess levy” argument, of course, should be be immediately dismissed not with a Dan Bianchi finger wag but a Moe Howard finger poke. Don’t buy it, ladies and gentleman. It’s a scam.

The “allowable levy” is an imaginary number the city’s finance director Sue “Mount” Carmel cooks up on the mayor’s orders based on the maximum 2.5% tax hike allowed by law plus the phantom “New Growth.” This year, “new growth” will add an additional $1.1555 million to the limit. There’s “new growth” in Pittsfield the same way that it’s sunny and 70 in Buffalo right now.

When you throw in the subjective nature of assessed value and the easy entrance of politics into the equations, you end up with a useless and meaningless “allowable levy.” Politically, though, The Suits love to employ it to show you how “fortunate” you are that you aren’t paying more.

For this “largesse,” they expect you to love them and kiss their rings. THE PLANET, rather, invites the politicians to kiss something else.

The other lie the fiscal apologists will present is what THE PLANET calls “The Comparative Deception.” The Suits will point out tax rates in other communities higher than those in Pittsfield. What they don’t factor in is “the ability to pay.” There is simply too little discretionary income left in the pockets of ordinary Pittsfield citizens at the end of the month. The proposed $18.06 R and $36.62 C levies represent a crushing blow to fiscal health. The Suits don’t care, though, because they got their cushy raises.

This is when the mendacious nature of Pittsfield politics has its greatest impact. The mayor, his administration, the school committee, department heads, and the city council can play whatever games they wish, but it’s only come tax setting time that citizens learn the full deadly nature of the play.

‘What If …’ Worksheet, too, is a Farce

Attached to the city’s spreadsheets is a “What if … Scenario Worksheet.” It goes through variations of possible levies. The worksheet generates reams of numbers in type too small to read. All well and good — if you’re looking to impress the gullible with meaningless volumes of Important Looking Numbers.

THE PLANET would rather see a “What if … Scenario Worksheet” presented during budget hearings. Our sheet would be given to each department head. They would be told to come up with budget plans based on 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% reduction scenarios. In other words, from flat funding, how would they manage their respective departments if funding were cut by those percentages?

The bottom line, and that’s literally what we’re talking about here, rests on two core principles:

1. The failure of the mayor, city departments (notably the schools), the school committee, and councilors to begin the long and arduous process of fiscal reform at budget time. No one has done if for each of the years Bianchi has been mayor and for many years prior to that. At one time, there was enough residual prosperity in the city to paper over the damage caused by this reckless budgetary process. Today, however, the city and its citizens are scraping bottom. They can no longer afford the sham.
2. The failure of the city to budget responsibly. Pittsfield (and government in general) budgets the opposite of the way you do at home or the way businesses do in the Dreaded Private Sector. Families and businesses budget by first estimating income. They then set spending accordingly. If income is flat or down, they cut. Government budgets by first estimating how much money it wants to spend. Then it backs in a tax rate to cover the extravaganza.

One Issue in 2015: Taming the Out-of-Control Budget

In election year 2015, there will be one issue only: The finances. Unless this crazy, generation long spending spree is put to a halt, the city will walk off the fiscal cliff into free-fall bankruptcy. Pittsfield taxpayers have a government costing $150 million. The Suits want to build a $130 million high school. Taxpayers still owe $23 million on the last round of school renovations. There is an unpaid liability of about $400,000,000 in OPEB accounts (pensions and other post-employment benefits taxpayers owe city workers). Taxpayers just paid for a new fleet of school buses that weren’t needed, an unnecessary move of city hall offices that will cost up to $500,000, and a switch of health insurance for city employees that will cost millions.

None of these measures required a popular vote! You were shut out of your government!

Status Quo on the city budget will not fly in 2015 if … if … the electorate can somehow wake up from its sleep. In the most recent city election, more than 75% of eligible voters didn’t bother. If a candidate can come along, preach fiscal reform, and electrify the voters, and drive turnout to 60-65%, there will be hope and change.

If not … well, you can do the math.

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“Well I’ve been to Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapit to Tonapah. Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made. Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed. Now if you give me weed, whites, and wine then you show me a sign, I’ll be willin’ to be movin’.” — Steve Earle, Linda Ronstadt, Little Feat, Commander Cody, and other artists, “Willin,'” (1972). Written by Lowell George.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.