BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, P&M WEDDING DAY + 72 YEARS) — In the budget proposal submitted by Mayor Linda Tyer to THE PLANET‘s Right Honorable Good Friends on the city council, one thing is clear. Tyer looks to raise taxes on homeowners and businesses. Just how much? That’s the question.

Budgets being estimates, there’s a lot of play in the figures. They can hide reality or make “real” pure fiction. Nonetheless, numerals describe fixed sums. In math, 2+2 = 4, every time. You can argue otherwise, but you’d be a fool to do so. It should therefore be a simple matter to look at the numbers and fix the tax hike as a definite sum. Ordinarily, that would be the case, but this is Pittsfield.

The Lovely Linda claims her budget raises taxes 4.2 percent. THE PLANET has used 5.9%. Which is it?

It is neither.

How can this be?

Not a Spending Plan but a Political Document

Supercitizen Terry Kinnas, guest hosting on PLANET VALENTI TELEVISION (PV-TV) this past Thursday, nailed it when he called Tyer’s budget a political document more than a financial plan. An independent analysis of the figures can only be done when removing the fudge and the sludge. THE PLANET‘s Secret Squadron has performed such an analysis. We won’t put you to sleep with the quadratic equations, second-order polynomials, or single variables. The Reader’s Digest version will suffice.

To arrive at the true tax increase, one must remove the “dedicated” funds Tyer counts as “ordinary.” This deception counts encumbered assets as funds capable of being used at the discretion of appropriators. For example, grant money should not be counted in the budget for the purposes of determining a tax increase. These are not available (i.e., discretionary) funds except for the single, narrowly proscribed purpose.

To determine an accurate tax increase, a municipal budget should only include unencumbered money: property tax estimates, abatements, estimated captured delinquent taxes, user fees, interest on investments, and surpluses. “Dedicated” money should not count. Tyer and city finance director Matt “Kufflinks” Kerwood include such money, of course, since the higher that number, the lower the tax hike will appear.

Don’t be fooled. This is an accounting trick, voodoo budgeting.

You’re Looking at a 10 to 11% Tak Hike, Pittsfield

To figure an actual tax hike, “dedicated” money must be subtracted. Once this is done, the calculation reveals that Tyer’s budget will raise taxes between 10 and 11%. The mayor, who campaigned on “fiscal responsibility,” has proposed a double-digit tax hike. This comes just after giving five more years of additional tax relief to the multimillionaire owner of downtown’s Beacon Cinema.

Tyer, in her letter to the council summarizing the budget, wrote,  “The proposed FY17 budget reflects a 4.2% increase over the FY16 budget.” Wrong. This budget proposes a 10 to 11% increase. The summary admits to an operating budget hike of $6,070,410. Subtract dedicated income, and you have a nearly 11% tax hike.

The renowned Dr. Charles Trczinka, professor of finance at the Kelly School of Business at the University of Indiana and former senior research economist for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has looked at Tyer’s spending plan.

“I think the 4.2% is outrageous,” Dr. Trczinka said. “The city needs to be reducing taxes not increasing. The $4.43 per week [average increase, $230/yr] is nonsense. Of course it is a small amount, but it is the direction of taxes not the amount that businesses react to. If Pittsfield wants to increase the value of the property it needs to cut, cut and cut. The schools are a perfect place to chop away. I would keep the Police funding in place.”

THE PLANET agrees.

Now who are you going to believe? THE PLANET and Dr. Trczinka or Linda Tyer and Kufflinks Kerwood?

Councilors, you are the last gasp of hope. You cannot pass this budget without chopping millions, as councilor at-large Kathy Amuso correctly stated. Councilors, do the right thing. Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski need you now, more than ever.

Don’t fail them again.

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“A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it.” — William Feather

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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