Mike Hall: City council reminiscent of an old Marx Brothers movie

Sometimes when I am listening to a Topeka City Council debate, I find myself thinking about some Marx Brothers movie.

Sometimes it is because the debate sounds so Marxian.

Sometimes it is just because I would rather think about Marx Brothers movies than listen to the Topeka City Council. Sometimes I would rather think about chainsaw massacre movies, for that matter.

The debate last week over trying to get the property tax rate back down to last year's level, by hook or by crook, reminded me of a scene from "Duck Soup."

In that movie Groucho played Rufus T. Firefly, president of the mythical country of Fredonia.

This exchange occurred as he was presiding over a cabinet meeting:Minister of War: Gentlemen. Gentlemen. Enough of this. How about taking up the tax?Firefly: How about taking up the carpet?Minister of War: I still insist we must take up the tax.

Firefly: He's right. You've got to take up the tacks before you can take up the carpet.

Councilman Jim Gardner was like the minister of war. He was obsessed with the tax.

When it appeared the council couldn't cut the budget any further without inciting a riot, it was announced they were within $153,378 of avoiding adoption of that dreaded ordinance decreed by the 1999 Kansas Legislature.

The new law says any time a governing body adopts a budget requiring more property tax dollars than was required the previous year, they have to adopt a special ordinance saying something like, "Forgive us, for we have sinned."

So, Gardner came up with a little sleight of hand to wipe out that remaining amount. All we have to do, he said, is increase the amount of sales tax in the budget by $153,378 and lower the property tax by that much, then we can crow to the voters about how we avoided raising property taxes this year.

But real life isn't like a Marx Brothers movie. Or shouldn't be. The city council can't order people to go out and buy $15,337,800 more stuff next year to produce the extra $153,378 in sales tax.

The council's action will only work if retail sales in Topeka increase by 3 percent, rather than the 2 percent suggested by the city's financial staff.

It could happen, but don't bet on it -- unless you are a city council member.

Next year when the sales tax revenue falls short of the council- ordained amount, two things can happen.

The council could authorize dipping into the city's reserves to make up the difference. That isn't likely, given the conservative nature of this council and the fact the reserves have been spent down to the lowest level the financial administrators feel comfortable with.

The more likely option is to cut back even more on spending. And that is going to hurt some program. Remember that spending from the city's governmental funds next year will be cut 8 percent because of this tight budget.

Even if the council is right about the sales tax revenue, several city programs will suffer next year.

It seems extremely likely the police department will have to sell its helicopters. The public works department will only be able to do 16 miles of street maintenance next year instead of the 23 miles it says it needs to do to keep on schedule of redoing the asphalt overlay once every 13 years.

And even though the mill levy rate needed to fund this budget is up only a fraction of a percent over last year's rate, the city's revenue from property tax will be going up by 6 percent because of the increased valuation of property in the city. Yet the city's spending will have to be cut back by 8 percent. That is because this year the city is using the last of that old financial reserve to fund its operations with an artificially low mill levy rate.

It is unfortunate for the city to get caught operating with an artificially low tax rate in the year the public is demanding rate- increase-free budgets from the local units of government.

The public got what it wanted from this city council -- a budget requiring virtually no increase in the property tax rate. Now all we can do is sit back and wait for the public to realize in a few years that it would be nice to have a helicopter program and isn't it terrible how the streets are crumbling.

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