Candidate's Update

Candidate's update….

My family is relocating in early summer; however, I have chosen to continue to run for Village Trustee.  I believe there are important issues to share with the residents of Oswego and I wish to serve our community while I am still a resident.  As previously stated, in order to prepare for my candidacy I reviewed over a thousand pages of financial documents.  Here are some of my findings (more will appear on my Patch blog):

• Village residents pay over $3.6 million in taxes for electric, gas, telecommunication and Home Rule sales tax (.5% increase in sales tax to pay for $1.3 million deficit in 2010).  This is in addition to property and existing sales taxes.
• Village received $2.46 million of tax revenue (8.7% of 2012 Village revenue) from the State through the Local Government Distributive Fund.  The state has been behind 4 to 5 months in remitting this and has $240 Billion in unfunded liabilities. It’s only a matter of time before this funding disappears with no known contingency plan.
• Included in the 2014-2018 Financial Forecast report are several pages listing out 78 different available revenue sources which municipalities may impose based on State Statutes, aka the “Revenue Toolkit”.  There are only a few passing references in the entire report that mention reduced spending.
• Village of Oswego taxpayers are currently subsidizing the Park and Ride program to the tune of $70,000 per year. The current Board locked the Village in to this contract for 2.5 years.
• Removing Capital Outlay and one time purchases, General Fund expenses (all services less Water/Sewer and Garbage collection) have increased 5% between 2008 and 2012.  During the same period, growth in personal wages has been stagnant.  
• Certain trustees ignored the Eco Commission request to have a tiered pricing structure for garbage collection and institute a new recycling program.  Based on amount of trash the household produced, this could have saved village residents almost 50% a month on their bills and made Oswego more environmentally friendly.  Unfortunately the current board locked Village residents into a 5 year contract.  
• The 6 Village Trustees receive $4,600 annually for salary and meeting stipends.  Total cost to Village taxpayers is $27,600 a year.
• $325,000 removed from water/sewer fund for the acquisition of computers/servers instead of placing funds into the capital reserve fund to pay for $800,000 in future water tower repairs.   
• Currently the Department of Public Works and Building and Zoning have a total of 29 pickup trucks for only 30 employees, of which 3 employees would not be utilizing vehicles.  This is in addition to the 11 dump trucks.  Why do we need so many vehicles?  The cul de sac's are now completed by private contractors.

Please note that I have chosen not to speak at the March 6^th candidate forum, or post campaign signage, but I will continue to run to bring to light issues like those above.   I hope by sharing this information you will use it to elect the best candidates for the Village board.