Speaking English: Balanced Budget (2012 Definition)

Last year at budget time, I set out with what I thought was a simple goal. I wanted the City of Richardson to adopt a balanced budget. I was disappointed. The city adopted a budget in which expenditures exceeded revenues. The city insisted the budget was nevertheless balanced. That's because the city feels free to use "reserved fund balance" to make up for a shortfall in revenues and still call the budget balanced.

I figured OK, maybe it's at least a cyclically balanced budget. Some years there's a reserved fund balance to draw down. Other years, the city runs a surplus and restores that reserved fund balance. An adamant reader insisted that I was wrong, that the reserved fund balance is drawn down each and every year, and replenished not by budget surpluses, but by increasing debt.

I never did get to the bottom of the conundrum. You can read the conclusion of last year's whole ugly mess if you want.

Now, they're ba-a-a-a-ck! The City Council is holding another of its annual so-called budget retreats this week. After the jump, my firm resolution.

DART Should Copy UPS

In The Washington Post's most excellent "Wonkblog," Brad Plumer explains "why most Americans can't take mass transit to work." In short, it's because that, "Even though millions of people live near transit stops, and even though millions of jobs are near transit stops, those systems don't line up."

Eric Nicholson gives his take on this news as it pertains to Dallas, in Unfair Park.

My own take is this: it's time for DART to re-invent mass transit. After the jump, the brilliant idea that came to me while waiting for the bus.

You Can't Spell Golf Fund Without F-U-N

The Richardson City Council received a presentation from city staff on the financial status of the municipal Sherrill Park Golf Course. Despite increased greens fees this year and an almost 10% increase in revenues compared to this time last year, the city still anticipates needing to transfer $105,000 into the city's Golf Fund to cover expenses. Most of this is due to a recent change in interpretation of the law by the state comptroller requiring the city to pay sales tax on greens fees, which the city had not been collecting before March of this year.

After the jump, why golf can be such a frustrating game.

Chasing Squirrels Again in Richardson

The City of Richardson held an open house this week to begin public discussion of the future of Main Street and the Central Expressway Corridor. This is likely to be the most consequential subject that this city council takes up in its two year term. So, what is everyone blogging about (and by "everyone," I of course mean "me")? Why, it's the upcoming referendum to vote on whether our ceremonial mayor is directly elected or not. Really.

After the jump, chasing squirrels again in Richardson.

Richardson Echoes

In case you're late to the party, let me catch you up. Richardson citizens face a referendum in November in which they'll be asked whether to change Richardson's city charter to make the office of mayor directly elected by the voters.

OK, I know it doesn't sound like much of a party. No fun here. Still, some are cackling about it like they somehow got into the good stuff. At least those people should find something to amuse them here.

Previously, I wondered, if direct election of the mayor is such an obviously fair and democratic way to do it, why in the world did Richardson's voters not set it up like that way back in 1956 when they adopted the current system? I started searching to find out what I could about that long ago decision, to find out if there might be any faint echoes of it still reverberating today that might inform the choice about to be thrust upon us in this year's November election.

I didn't find the answer to why Richardson made the choice they did in 1956, but I did discover that the City of Dallas, in 1949, switched from a system remarkably like Richardson's today to a system of direct election for mayor. I also found a back story that suggested that contentious council government after Dallas made the change would have justified Richardson's decision not to follow Dallas, but I didn't find any hard evidence that was behind Richardson's decision. For whatever reason, Richardson rejected Dallas's decision.

After the jump, the results of a little more digging.

1949: Charter Change for Dallas

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

Source: Mark Twain.

Recently, I asserted that "There are pros and cons to any system of government. The [Richardson] charter commission in 1956 must have spent hours and hours considering all of them, before the voters approved a council-manager form of government with limited duties and responsibilities for the mayor and the current method of choosing that mayor."

I said "must have spent" instead of "for sure did spend" because, frankly, I didn't know. I did no research on how much time Richardson's founding fathers spent deliberating over Richardson's original city charter. But "hours and hours" seemed like a reasonable assumption, so that's what I said.

It didn't take long for a reader to challenge me (sort of). He asserted, "Richardson pretty much copied the Dallas charter all those years ago, with some minor changes that were Richardson specific." Whether or not it was intended, that could be taken to imply that Richardson's city fathers didn't break a sweat agonizing over options and details. Someone gaveled the first charter commission meeting to order, someone else pulled out a parchment containing the Dallas city charter, took his big black fountain pen and crossed out the word Dallas and wrote in Richardson, and then said, let's say we call it a day and all go out for a beer. Except I don't know how far they'd have to go in those days for a beer. Pretty far, I reckon. Chicago, maybe. So maybe they just went out for a sarsaparilla. That's another thing I didn't research.

After the jump, back on topic.

Richardson's First Directly Elected Mayor

Who will it be? Read on.

Yesterday, I analyzed the upcoming referendum to amend Richardson's City Charter to have a directly-elected mayor. I confidently predicted that the proposed amendment would pass. I less confidently predicted that there would be no serious organized opposition because the amendment would be likely to pass in any case. Everyone would save their time, effort and money for the upcoming mayoral election in May, 2013.

After the jump, how that will go down.

Mayoral Referendum: Now What?

Revolution is not coming to Richardson, it is finally here.

Source: Anonymous online commenter.

According to a press release by the political action committee that bankrolled it, the effort to secure enough petition signatures to force a referendum on the direct election of Richardson's mayor has met its goal. Assuming the signatures hold up, the big question now is, what's next?

After the jump, the road ahead.

Higgs Boson or Fireworks?

Today's diversion is a simple quiz. Which is it: Higgs boson tracks or Richardson "Family 4th Celebration" fireworks? You decide.

From 2012 07 04 Breckinridge

This July 4th, a team of nuclear physicists announced experimental evidence for the Higgs boson, the particle that gives everything its mass (the so-called "God particle," a term physicists hate). It was predicted to exist in 1964 and ever since physicists have been working towards having a powerful enough particle accelerator to produce experimental results to test the theory. Now they have one, the Large Hadron Collider, a $10 billion instrument buried in a 17 mile circular tunnel, the collaboration of dozens of countries, hundreds of universities, and thousands of scientists, the largest and most complex device ever built. With the July 4th announcement, scientists worldwide celebrated a major advancement in human understanding of the building blocks of our universe.

Coincidentally, the City of Richardson was holding its "Family 4th Celebration" on July 4th, too. Despite the smaller cost and more local audience, the tracks of fireworks across the sky at Breckinridge Park delighted young and old just as much as the Higgs boson tracks delighted scientists. This year, there were two reasons to celebrate. Congratulations, scientists. And Happy Birthday, America.

More photos after the jump.

OTBR: Desolate Flats of Bessemer Bend

Latitude: N 42° 50.058
Longitude: W 106° 38.922

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".