I Said it Before, and I'll Say it Again. We Have One Real Problem Here.

Well, maybe 1 and 1A.

Our problem is money.  We don't have enough.  We live as fakes, because we try to pretend we really don't have our problem, or it's not the problem, or it's not a problem.  We stick our heads in the sand.  We whistle in the dark.

Some people complain that there ought to be training to be a parent.  You should need a license, to show that you have an idea what you're doing.  Other people say the same thing about being an elected official, or a judge.

Likewise, it's possible for an area to become a municipality without having to demonstrate real viability.  We did that, in 1933.  And we're not viable today, either.  I don't know who paid to create our streets.  Maybe it was Arthur Griffing.  I should try to look it up.  Maybe I'll ask Seth Bramson.  But unless creating streets used to be dirt cheap (sorry), it's something we could not have done then, with donations from the few BP residents at the time.  Somehow, the streets lasted, more or less, and we use the same ones today.  But they're in disrepair, getting worse over time (as does everything), and we can't afford to fix them.

I have no reason to believe our very generously provided and arrayed medians were ever other than spare.  Is that back in vogue now, since we embrace minimalism?  But they're not really minimal, or minimalist.  They're ratty, skanky, and just poorly developed.  Watch them, and walk them.  They're used often enough as ready places to do U-turns, and they're used as garbage dumps and pet excrement receptacles.  They're used for what they look like.  And why aren't they better developed?  Why aren't they treated with the pride they deserve?  Apart from the obstructiveness and failure to provide leadership from the relevant Board, it's because we can't afford to do anything with them.

We would never have improved the log cabin and built the new administration building, if we hadn't gotten a grant of funds representing over half the cost.  We never did, and we couldn't have.  It's true we're cheap (that's 1A), but it's also true we simply could not have afforded it.

We have a drainage problem here.  Yeah, yeah, I know, Milton, no, we don't really have a drainage problem.  Yes, we do.  And it's not that Milton and some others don't want to pay to address that problem.  Well, they don't, but also, it's way too expensive for us.  The rough estimate at this point, for a new Village-wide drainage system, is about $13M.  Maybe we could get another matching grant for half of it?  Oh, good, then it's only $6.5M.  No way.  Not around here.

Do not be fooled.  This is not about sharpening pencils, and trying to ferret out fraud and other mischief.  The budget is bare bones.  It's only deciding which of the comparatively minor municipal responsibilities we want to address, at the expense of the rest of them, while we continue to sing ourselves the song about how we don't really have the major problems.  Furthermore, there is no fraud.  There never was.  It's true that before we had professional management, we had non-professional mismanagement.  But that wasn't fraud.  It was just the ineptitude you have to get from people trying to do a job they weren't trained to do and didn't know how to do.  Now, we have the professionals, the jobs are done properly, and we're still very deep in a large fiscal hole.

We need an infusion, and we're not going to get it.  Our amazing opportunity was squandered by a Commission that didn't know what it was doing, had no vision, and didn't want anything for the Village.  That was the last Commission.  The current Commission, which is a few weeks from being over, tried its best, but it was too late.  The opportunity for annexation appears to be in the rear view mirror, and we're on a super highway.  We can't pull over and back up.

We could try to do better with millage, but we won't get far.  The difference between 9.7 mills and 10 mills will get us maybe let's say up to $100K.  It's hard to tell, because values are a moving target, especially with some recent nice sales.  So I would have said something like $50K, but I'm rounding up.  We could get heroic, and use referendum to jump ourselves up to 12 mills, or 15, or 20.  Just for a few years.  (Stop laughing yourself sick, and get up off the floor.  I'm trying to have a real conversation with you here.)  The facts are, no one would agree to that, and it would be even less fair to our high value neighbors than we're already being.  You do understand that most of us pay too little tax, and some of us pay way too much.  Increasing millage hurts the latter neighbors the most.

So another possibility is to use assessments.  Apparently, some kinds of assessment don't count as part of the millage.  We can have our millage-- let's say 9.7, or 10-- and an assessment.  That's a way of raising our taxes, and it affects everyone the same.  It's not ad valorem.  If the assessment, let's say for the police, or the medians, or whatever else, is $500 or $1000 per year, it's that amount for everyone, whether their house is worth $200K or $2M.  That's a bad deal for those of us who are limited?  True.  But it's respectful and appreciative of the bad deal suffered by those of us who paid a lot for our houses.

The point is, we have to do something.  We can't just act like children.  When we do that for long enough, we eventually have to do something about the log cabin, and build a new administration building.  And many of us fuss and complain about it.  But it's because for decades, we didn't rise to the normal maintenance occasion.  And if we continue to wait, while our streets deteriorate, thanks in part to our drainage problem, we'll have to pay to fix them both, and it won't be cheap.  And we'll still fuss and complain about all the money we have to pay.  Or that we want someone else to pay.  Because we're cheap (you remember problem 1A), and we don't want to take real responsibility.  We're grown-ups, because we have some sort of income, and we own houses and drive cars?  Very nice.  But it's more complicated than that, and it requires more from us.

So that's our problem.  It's our main problem.  It's problem 1.  And problem 1A.  If there's a problem 1B, it's the need we always have, but don't always satisfy, for a Commission with vision and ambition, that will invite us, urge us, and require us to take responsibility for ourselves and our Village.  That's our problem.  That's our problem.

PS: We're $1000 short of the goal for the "Ballplayer" sculpture that's in Griffing Park.  We need that much more in donations.  If you haven't donated to this sculpture, please do so.  Donate any amount you like, write a check to the Village, and memo it "Ballplayer."  Ten c-notes, 20 fifties, 50 twenties, or 100 sawbucks will do it.  If you're thinking of a fin, step it up.  If you want me or Chuck Ross to pick it up from you, contact us.  We'll be right over.  And we don't have these kinds of dumb problems if every BP property owner pays $8 (eight dollars) per year in an extra tax/assessment/donation. OK, fine, $7.   Sheesh.