I reckon over the past month or so I could have taken a victory lap or two but knowing what is in store has taken the celebratory edge off here at Slabbed New Media. What I am talking about?
1. $300,000 in Equitable Sharing Funds to be repaid.
2. Water and Sewer bond sinking fund, supposedly funded with a $13/month utility account surcharge, is missing another $300,000 or so as the surcharge has been diverted to pay the City’s operating expenses.
Item 1 plus 2 equal over $600,000 but it is worse than that – it has to be because of the problems with not paying Fuelman signals a larger problem for the City of Bay St Louis in not having any cash despite this being the cash rich time of the year for a Mississippi municipality. So the big question remains the same, how much is the accumulated deficit Hizzoner has diligently tried to hide? I poised that question to friends in both high and low places. The best guess answer came from a City official under grant of anonymity as this official was not authorized to discuss the City’s finances and the number is…..
In excess of $950,000 which is more than half of the total property tax collections the City collects annually. While not as far along on the road to insolvency as Hattiesburg Municipal Schools the cure will ultimately be the same.
While recent history has evidently taught the Bay city administration nothing, it should not be lost on all others that the longer this drags out, the worse the human toll that is taken by the financial cure.
Well, my rocker could have flipped over, but, I am almost positive, a long time ago, when my oldest was calling me from the office of one of our highly educated, overpaid school admins; I told my wife that, one day, MS would realize that just because you have a “Dr.” proceeding your name, earned at JSU, USM or wherever (possibly on free money), that you could not continue to earn a near six figure salary in such a small town PUBLIC SCHOOL. There is nothing I loathe more than being lectured by someone who drives the nicest vehicle in town, sitting in a luxurious office with certificates, artwork, etc. displayed on every overpriced piece of office furniture purchased with “our” money, peering at me with a disgusted look because I couldn’t make the trip from my office in Kenner to BSL in less than an hour, as she/he brushes the shoulder of their designer business attire, only to tell me that my son had an empty tobacco can in his truck and that was not acceptable at her school. Shew…I thought something was really wrong (NOT THAT I ACCEPTED HIM BUYING TOBACCO ILLEGALLY AT THE CORNER STORE BY BAY HIGH OR POSSESSING IT) but, I am pretty sure that his truck was parked “off campus” because the parking lot was nowhere near being complete, even though I did pay for a parking pass, and Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure that I passed a group of teachers smoking about 12 inches off campus nearby, guess they have a storage area there for their tobacco, lol…..oh wait, that was not the point of this rant, it was that HATTIESBURG IS JUST THE FIRST TO ADMIT THAT WE CANNOT AFFORD TO PAY SO MANY ADMINISTRATION PERSONNEL SO MUCH MONEY, REGARDLESS EDUCATION, THE JOB SHOULD HAVE A PAY CAP. IF YOU EARNED A DOCTORATE DEGREE IN EDUCATION JUST TO BECOME AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, SORRY, YOU STILL CAN’T HAVE 75K PER YEAR…..NO OTHER INDUSTRY DOES THAT. Just take a look at the Mississippi State Personnel Board website, most jobs require an advanced education degree and pay less than 50K per year, even at the state management level….I am all for teachers being paid a fair salary, but some of the administration salaries in our state and local education system are ridiculous. The same phenomenon is true within many of the local government administrative positions…js
As a matter of fact I was at the Bay St. Louis-Waveland School District Board meeting last night and heard the Business Administrator give the Financial Report for Dec. which was:
Revenue for the month: $1.7 million
Expenditures for the month: a little over $2million
57% was or $1.1 million was for salaries and benefits.
Remember this is all administrative because the teachers work for the state.
So, yeah, we are still and have always been top heavy in the Bay district with administrative salaries.
But what are we getting for our money is the real kicker.
ACT scores that were sad to say the least.
Miss. needs to consolidate some of these school districts and this would be a good place to start.
In Hancock County we have two districts that are for the most part equal with regard to student performance.
Hancock has a student enrollment of 4,400 and Bay-Waveland is around 1950.
These two districts could be easily consolidated with a savings in administration.
No county in the state with under 6,000 students to serve needs 2 Superintendents ( the smallest one pays their more than Governor Bryant) 2 assistant superintendents, 2 athletic directors, 2 curriculum directors, and on and on.
Just the two business offices two years ago were costing a little over $11 million a year to run.
And we wonder why this state has such poor student performance in this state.
Because tax dollars for education in are like helium balloons, they all rise to the top!
Let get some of this cash in the classrooms where it belongs.
Oh, and these administrators are the ones who claim they are so underfunded!! Right!!
If the info you have about the supposed city clerk is true – wow! This possible candidate started out as clerk of council (horrible minutes). Worked up to being Buzz’s assistant, which might be considered OJT for key the administrative position of city clerk …… 😳
Supposed candidate has been around long enough to know where all of the skeletons are buried. Can’t believe an experienced politico (likes to fly under the radar) would consider such a position under current administration. However, anything is possible in the place falling apart.
What do Bernie Madoff, Rod Nicholson and Les Fillingame have in common? Nothing yet!
Bernie stole millions.
Prosecutors said Nicholson used a city credit card to pay for $2,700 in repairs on two personal vehicles. A prosecutor said Nicholson is believed to have embezzled more than $32,000.
See, Les really is the middle man!