McFarland City Budget

I went to city hall this afternoon and we were provided with some records of the last budget that was proposed for the 2004-2005 fiscal year. I wanted to upload a copy of what we received for everyone to view. You will notice that the 2004-2005 budget is a proposed budget and it looks like it was not approved. Our city's fiscal year begins in June, so technically we should have had an approved budget more than 6 months ago for the 2005-2006 fiscal year. What the heck are these guys doing? How is it possible that they haven't been able to approve a budget yet? These people are just plain clueless. You'll also notice how their proposed budget for expenses is approximately 2.2 million higher than it was for the prior fiscal year. That's a nearly 66% increase over the prior year! While at the same time they expected our revenue (income) to increase by only 12%! All of this occurred under mayor Melendez's watch.

Also, note how they had to budget $65,000 in the general fund for legal fees which were not even required in prior years. Also, an additional $65,000 in legal fees under the sewer fund that was not required in prior years. Why are we incurring legal costs related to the sewer system? I wonder if they were just trying to spread out the legal costs over several funds so that they don't stand out too much.

McFarland City Budget
http://home.earthlink.net/~rrodartejr/mcrg/budget/Budget.pdf