SO WHERE IS THE BUDGET LEADING US?

Hopefully you have taken the time to read the Budget Narrative and gleamed interesting bits of information from it.
Its nice to know that its "THE CITIZENS OF WEST PALM BEACH" top the Organizational Chart .At least here, we have clear identifying chains of command,... we have it in writing.

So as the BOSS we should have an awareness of how our taxes are being spent and what other monies are used to operate the City of West Palm Beach. I suggest, for those interested in the nitty gritty of numbers, to go directly to page 67. The finance department has done a good job of explaining the various departments and funds.

I wanted to see for myself how the past department budgets compared with this one.
So I have done my own comparison.
In a department by department comparison over the last 5 years, I have charted the steady increase of the Department Expenditures: Total Reports.
It is very telling. To give just a few examples:

Mayor’s Department in 2002 was $595,110.00.
This budget is $1,304,245.00

Channel 18 in 2002 wasn’t actually budgeted, but spent $81,531. 00.
Today they are budgeted for $477,952.

General Government was $17,273,197.00 in 2002.
Today’s budget, $41,240,533.00

City Attorney in 2002 was $1,732,799.00.
This budget shows $2,874,787.00

There’s more. But I won’t bore you.
I will encourage each of you to do your own research.
All the budgets are online.
Check it out.
There are gross increases in line items which I have identified as bloat.
We must get educated as to how they are allocating our taxes, as well as, how they are compromising our future with the debt of bonds.

Anyone who is interested in seeing my entire chart can reach me by email and we can arrange a visit for you to see how the numbers have grown.