{"id":1543,"date":"2017-12-01T22:24:12","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T22:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=1543"},"modified":"2017-12-01T22:24:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T22:24:12","slug":"government-always-wants-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=1543","title":{"rendered":"Government always wants more!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Times Record 12.01.17\u2026City proposes new business fees\/$100 per business.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The arrogance of City Manager Carl Geffken proposing another tax increase, this one on city businesses\u2014far too much political & economic control.<\/p>\n

In view of the Ft. Smith\u2019s city government ongoing incompetence, ineptness and failures the pomposity & disrespect for local taxpayers is unfathomable, Softball Complexes, Trails, \u201cPropelling Downtown Forward\u201d, 113 page document compiled by Gateway Planning in Dallas, accompanied by in all likelihood millions for the 501c3 Establishment\u2026specifically for what? Then there is the more recent $38 MILLION Bond deal\u2014government\u2019s way of raising taxes without citizen\u2019s knowledge, claiming all the while \u201cit is not a tax increase\u201d. <\/p>\n

It may be a new thought to Geffken and the City Board, because they \u201cNeed\u201d something that does not mean taxpayers should lay down and cough up the dough—improvise. Got it? Improvise. <\/p>\n

Those nebulous figures thrown out for police needs by Geffken are anything but specific, as usual\u2014meaning they can spend any way they desire.<\/p>\n

In the manner of the police purview is the $790,000 surplus residing in the coffers of the FSPD and demanding more while an alleged deficiency in police & fire retirement funds. How about Sgts & officers going to FBI training schools in Conroe, Tx using city transportation, staying in a Day\u2019s Inn 4 nights at a cost of $23,000 for 7 officers & Sgts? <\/p>\n

The point: the majority of the Board, maybe by design, appears blandly unaware of who is really running the government and seems to be sorely lacking in business experience and knowledge.<\/p>\n

The Board should temporarily ask Geffken to step aside and demand he implement a government that is efficient, transparent and certainly less fat.<\/p>\n

The only way to utilize taxpayer dollars efficiently is Zero Based Budgetry, which means every department Head does not begin with a budget with built-in increases year after year. It means every single expense has to be anticipated and accounted for and that each succeeding year begins with reducing the outgo. Some departments could actually increase revenue. <\/p>\n

Joe McCutchen<\/p>\n

P.S. In Director Don Hutchings political ad yesterday he said \u201cI am trying my hardest to keep fees (taxes) from going up in this community\u201d. So Director Hutchings this is your big chance to back up your statement.<\/p>\n

arkansasfreedom.net <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Times Record 12.01.17\u2026City proposes new business fees\/$100 per business. The arrogance of City Manager Carl Geffken proposing another tax increase, this one on city businesses\u2014far too much political & economic control. In view of the Ft. Smith\u2019s city government ongoing incompetence, ineptness and failures the pomposity & disrespect for local taxpayers is unfathomable, Softball Complexes, … Continue reading Government always wants more!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-city-politics","category-forced-redistribution"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1544,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543\/revisions\/1544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}