By John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com

You can tell what’s important to a city by the way it spends its money.

I mean your money.

We know it in Birmingham. We’ve seen it from many years of extravagant travel bills from mayor and council that eclipse all the other major cities in Alabama.

We’ve seen it in years of neighborhood parties and community concerts, events billed as ways to reward residents but are really nothing more than schemes for council members to campaign – on your dime – in their districts.

What’s it like being an unwitting campaign donor? Taxing.

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John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com

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Mayor William Bell has proposed his $428 million operating budget for fiscal year 2018, and that's where it's all laid out. This is how the city of Birmingham wants to spend your money.

But where, in this massive document, do we begin? The Mayor’s office is always a good place to start. Because it makes you shake your head until your brain hurts.

The mayor will not add employees to his staff this year, stop the presses! But he doesn’t have to. At 101 mayoral employees – one for every 2,100 city residents -- he already has more than the mayors of Boston or Philadelphia.

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John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com

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The mayor’s office argues that the comparison is not fair because the staff includes people who work at the Crossplex, the Negro Southern League Museum and other budgeted departments. But at the end of the day it’s the mayor’s office, and it employs more people than Community Development, the Law Department and the City Clerk’s office, combined.

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John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com

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The mayor’s office added five staffers since 2013. And – get this – 36 positions since Bernard Kincaid was mayor 10 years ago.

It’s not like Kincaid was short staffed. Even then, the staff was comparable to Detroit and four times that of Richmond, Va.

In 2008 Kincaid's office spent about $21 per resident. Next year, if this budget is approved, Bell’s will cost about $48 per person.

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John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com

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The budget for the mayor’s office overall will not increase from this year to next. But his 2018 office budget is a 19 percent increase over last year’s.

Then again the proposed city council budget will rise 36 percent from 2016-2018, and the city clerk’s office will see a 37 percent increase during that time. Parks and Recreation will rise 70 percent, while police and fire will tick up 15 percent.

Not as much as the mayor or council, but up. There is $1.5 million in the plan to add police cars, so that’s something.

But all public safety departments combined will rise 12 percent. Or a third of the city clerk’s office.

Traffic engineering will climb but 10 percent in that two-year period.

Public Works will decline 2 percent.

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As I said. You can tell what’s important to a city by the way it spends its money.

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John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com

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Like the way Birmingham, in 2018, is budgeted to spend $100,000 on North Birmingham environmental issues, where residents face concerns about living on polluted and possibly dangerous ground.

It will spend $500,000 on the World Games. And $705,000 on the Magic City Classic. And $500,000 on UAB football. And $175,000 on the High School Basketball Championship. And $37,500 on AHSAA wrestling.

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John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com

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The city will spend $1,850,000 – counting conference payments – on football alone.

Oh. And $75,000 on housing for the mentally ill.

It will spend $350,000 on the Indy Racing League.

And Birmingham – site of the once-largest Veterans Day parade in all the land – will spend $20,000 on Veterans Day.

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John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com

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And of course there will be travel. The offices of the mayor and council will have $273,000 to spend around the world.

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John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com

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And there will be consultants. Of course there will be consultants. The mayor and council will each have $400,000 to spend on those.

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John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com

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Yep. Like I said. You can tell an awful lot about what’s important to a city by how it spends its money.

I mean your money.

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2018 Proposed Operating Budget (003) by John Archibald on Scribd