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Daydreambeliever, you state, “Please don't forget the side deal the firefighters, police and municipal did for the city. They all took a 5% pay cut for 6 months as a side deal to help the city”.

Using official City Budget document I decided to analyze the 100 level line items that include the employee Salary, Sick time, OT and vacation, etc. expenses and the employee benefit line items that consist of pension, healthcare and other benefits to determine if real dollars were saved by this so called 5% pay cut side deal.

Here are my findings.

Expenses related to Salary line items

2009 - $50,258,262

2010 - $47,864,060

2011 - $49,759,926

2012 - $50,224,984

2013 - $50,485,471

2014 - $51,149,635

2015 - $51,863,673

2016 - $54,479,733

2017 - $55,226,802

Expenses related to Employee Benefits line items

2009 - $41,330,889

2010 - $41,660,044

2011 - $44,166,673

2012 - $46,437,558

2013 - $50,782,594

2014 - $51,085,107

2015 - $54,720,143

2016 - $55,605,684

2017 - $56,620,662

Combined expenses & change from previous year

2009 - $91,589,151

2010 - $89,524,104 (-$2,065,047)

2011 - $93,926,599 (+$4,402,495)

2012 - $96,662,542 (+$2,735,943)

2013 - $101,268,065 (+$4,605,523)

2014 - $102,234,742 (+$966,677)

2015 - $106,583,816 (+$4,349,074)

2016 - $110,085,417 (+$3,501,601)

2017 - $111,847,464 (+$1,762,047)

Conclusion: whatever concessions were implemented by the administration and agreed to by the unions resulted in only 1 year (2009 to 2010) where expenses were reduced. Those saving were wiped out in the 2011 year as expenses increased by $4.4 million, meaning the temporary cuts were restored above and beyond the cuts.

Bottom line: Expenses related to the 3 municipal union salary and benefits have steadily increased at times by very significant amounts year over year and whatever concessions that were agreed to through either “side agreements” or contractual, DID NOT reduced overall employee expenses and the 5% pay cut argument you make is nothing more than a fallacy.