City of Zeeland Budget

Last night we finished up a two night overview of the City of Zeeland  2011 / 2012 budget. While not the most exciting of sessions, they were no less important. What was evident over that last two nights was Federal and State influences on our budget  This year the Governors office has laid out specific proposed legislation that City's, Townships, Villages will have to follow in order to obtain state revenue sharing, a direct impact to their general funds. Units of government will have a check list to meet if they wish to receive Revenue Sharing. 

• Accountability and transparency performance dashboard October 1, 2011
• Develop plans for Consolidation and collaboration January 1,2012
• Address employee compensation

Other influences we saw were things like the FCC narrow banding project forcing city's all over the country to buy new radios for police fire and municipalities. Tools like the Brownfield Credits that are used for  economic and environmental development are proposed to go away. We may see rules for City employee Healthcare requirements, pension rules, Green power (a whole topic by itself).

All that said. They City of Zeeland is financially sound and will be able to meet the pending proposed legislation requirements, thanks to sound planning over the last few years. Over the next several weeks we will refine our budget, propose a mileage rate ( no increase is proposed) and then a vote to pass the budget. 

Be Safe

Change it up

My running partner and I have been hitting runs together 2 to 3 days a week. This past week her schedule  prevented her from any runs together, except for the our long this weekend. We both spit off and ran with other people and did different things. We both got different types of speed work in, and we both saw times on our Garmins that we were happy to see.

So often routine for one person gets you in that rut and your out there just because. Same happens with two people I believe as well.  Mixing up your routines and mixing with other runners forces you to get out of the box and try something different. Think of it as cross training across different people. Being flexible in your training can bring you good results and get to know some new people too. 

Don't get me wrong it will be nice to run with Amy again this Sunday. Hope we can wear shorts too.

Run safe Run Strong