Woodstock's "Popular" Annual Financial Report

Did you pay attention to the insert this week with The Woodstock Independent (Aug. 17-23 issue)? Did you notice that it's Woodstock's report to residents on operations? And it's Woodstock's "Popular" Annual Financial Report (PAFR).

One almost has to be a CPA to understand financial statements, but the City does a pretty good job at presenting the number in a broadbrush fashion. But pay attention. Look at the words and the numbers, and don't get sidetracked by how "pretty" it is.

The first section that got my attention was "Allocating the Dollars". It's in the section "Where the Money Goes." Thanks for using plain English.

Of the $28,165,800 in expenditures of your money,

$10,236,800 goes for salaries; that's 36.3%
$  4,277,000 goes for benefits (for those getting salaries); that's 15.2%

Aye, and therein lies the first rub.

While the $4,277,000 is 15.2% of the total expenditures, look at it from the standpoint of its percent of salaries. When you look at it this way, the $4,277,000 is 41.8% of salaries.

Does anyone else think that a 41.8% benefit package is more than a little on the "rich" side?

And the total of salaries plus benefits? That's $14,513,800, which is 51.5% of the expenditures!

One would have to dig down into the 1,000 pages of financial information for this report and budget to find out what all is included in "benefits". For example, does that include the City's share of retirement and disability benefits, if employees are not covered under Social Security (where the employer's contribution would be 7.65%)?

Remember the day when government jobs and benefits weren't the best on the block? They weren't the highest paid with the sweetest benefits. Of course, this didn't change in just one year. But it changed. And the reason it changed, is that the public stopped paying attention.

So dig that PAFR out of the trash and get out your red marker. If the trash is already gone, drop by City Hall and pick up another copy. Then start showing up at City Hall on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 7:00PM. But only if you care about your wallets.