There was a report in the Arizona Republic last week regarding Phoenix's new airplane used for prisoner extraditions and surveillance. The plane cost over $4 million dollars.
While an obvious public relations issue this illustrates the complexity of general fund money vs. public bond money. While this is a way, way oversimplified explanation the bottom line is this: general city operations (salaries, etc.) can only come from the city's general fund, which is funded from (certain) tax revenue and shared revenue from the state.
Bond funds can only be spent towards the specific items that were articulated when the bond was proposed. This is why the city cannot use this $4 million dollars toward police or fire fighter salaries and must be spent on the approved item: the airplane.
Again, that is a very oversimplified explanation of general funds vs. bond money but it is key that voters understand that there is a difference between the two pools of money and how they are able to be spent. I'm not saying this airplane purchase is right, wrong or otherwise but the city is correct in its application of this particular bond money.
I think this is a topic not understood by the public. The public only sees expenditures during a budget crisis. Even with a common sense explanation, many will still cry foul.
ReplyDeleteI wish more of the voters out there understood what they were actually voting for. It seems absolutely silly to me to spend $4 million dollars on a plane to extradite prisoners. Make them travel on a bus! There are so many other better ways that $4 million dollars could be spent, like on education! I understand though that because the $4 million was a bond and not general funds that it has to be spent on the plane. But I have to seriously question the thought process of the people who voted that bond to pass.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with everyone on this. My work deal with grant money, and many people miss understand this too. The budget process and financing has rules which they have to follow, and people do not understand the complexity of these issues.
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