As part of the response to our current issue’s cover story, we’ve had a few critics point out that city of Roanoke does have a rainy day fund that currently amounts to $19.7 million.
What we feel is important to add is that this amount reflects only a 0.3% savings during the Burcham-era administration. Based on city budget numbers, records show that over the last nine years the city has spent 99.7 percent of every dollar taken in. And this comes as city revenues have increased $83 million.
Here’s how we arrived at these numbers…
Since Mrs. Burcham arrived in 2000, the city of Roanoke has saved less than three tenths of one percent – or $622,000 – each year from an average annual budget of $217 million. Said another way, the Burcham administration, while increasing the cost of city government by more than $83 million, has spent 99.72% of all taxes collected.
Consider; The rainy day fund in 2000 was at $13.1 million, meaning $5.6 million has been added over the past nine years. On average that’s about $622,000 per year, or a paltry rate of just .28 percent, based on an average budget size over those years of $217.1 million.
Perhaps if city government had been putting a little more away during these times of relative plenty they would not now face the need to close two public schools, suspend trash pickup and outsource school bus services to balance their budgets. But we suppose that’s the nature of government – “spend it all.”
