SAL SERIES
Shocking News From CPS
City Public Service Budget Second
Only To City; Exceeds $1,000,000,000
CA Stubbs, SAL Commentary
It is only the size of the CPS Budget, and amount of money budgeted over the past 23 years that is shocking. Your 2002/2003 budget of $1,031,800,000 is second only to the City Of San Antonio budget of $1,403,764,554.
The efficiency with which this massive sum was handled by officials far exceeded that of the City Of San Antonio.
Let me explain by showing first, the 23 year budget trend in comparison to Cost Of Living (CPI) and Customer Trends.
There was rapid budget growth in the expansion period of the 80's and thereafter budget trends remained fairly constant except for the dip in 97/98 which was explained as a "reduced level of spending...is due primarily to two refueling outage maintenance periods in the current year while the proposed budget reflects one scheduled maintenance period."
In total, CPS budgets for 1981/2003 were $18,474,800,000. If the base year budget of $367.4 million had grown in step with CPI and Customer Growth, the total budgets would have been $16,966,400,000. Thus, $1,508,400,000 more was budgeted than that dictated by CPI and Customer Growth.
While the CPS record is far better than the City Of San Antonio for such a large sum, the more than $1.5 billion excess can be considered as a bloat factor that continues to be a part of the base of future budgets.
Accordingly, attention must be paid to this matter in the form of future rate adjustments. Citizens are overburdened and need relief even from those who have done a better than average job of handling our money.
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THE BUS DOESN'T STOP HERE
Via Transit Takes Bus Customers,
Taxpayers For A Bumpy Ride
CA Stubbs, SAL Commentary
In 1981 the VIA Budget was $28.5 million. In the current 2002/2003 budget year it has reached, $99,225,931.
The shocking facts are, the budget for this period grew 248%, while Cost of Living (CPI) grew 103%, and ridership a measly 6%.
This simply means that budget growth was 2.28 times greater than that dictated by CPI & Ridership growth.
Perhaps the grave disparity that exists can best be explained with the following Chart. (Source: VIA Budgets & Texas Work Force for CPI).
Please note the growing separation of the budget growth line versus the CPI, and the Ridership line in particular. I can only interpret this to mean that a lot of money is going for something besides riders.
Viewed from another standpoint, the total of all funds budgets for all years 1982/2003 was $1,486,600,000. If the base year 1981 budget of $28.5 million had grown in step with CPI & Ridership Growth, the total all funds budgets would have been $1,026,200,000. Thus, $460,400,000 more was budgeted than dictated by CPI & Ridership. This excess figure could be termed a bloat factor which now is built into all future budgets.
It would seem to be an ideal time to call in the Private Sector to include the Taxi Industry to explore ways of reducing this grave disparity between budgets, the CPI, and Ridership.
While VIA's budget of $99 + million is a small part of the $6.6 billion budgets of the large tax and use fee outfits, a golden opportunity exists for serious action to make better use of VIA Budget Dollars.
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Email: TAXWATCHER@AOL.COM
Tel: 210-433-1920
Fax: 210-433-4002
(Editor's Note: Besides being a columnist for the San Antonio Lightning, CA Stubs is also:
State Chair Emeritus, Citizens Against Gov. Waste
Founder & Former Pres. Homeowner Taxpayer Assn.
Former President of Texas Assn. Of Concerned Taxpayers.
Member & Supporter of: National Taxpayers Union,
Citizens For A Sound Economy, Tax Foundation, & Citizens Against Government Waste )
