Salerno has a Good Financial Plan, or Not?

According to his very brief presentation at the 2nd Budget Hearing, the city manager said he is right-sizing (his favorate words, it seems) the City of Coral Gables so that when the economy comes back the city can retake a better financial path.

This is where his plan is not that clear.  Will the city take advantage of increased revenues from rising property values (values go up and we pay more taxes) to make up for delays in capital projects, or will the city take advantage of its rightsizing (=downsizing) to keep property taxes low for us all when the economy comes back.  Will the city retake its historical path of paying too much, increasing merit pay and making inflation adjustments.

These are fair questions because so far the evidence is that when property values go up, our taxes go up; and when property values go down, our taxes go up.  Can the city commissioners work to get our property taxes to stay the same at the very least.

I see us on a long-term path of constantly rising property taxes in Coral Gables to pay for two items–pensions and health care for active employees and pensioners.  No amount of pension reform, no matter how good, will reduce the existing committed unfunded liability.

Does anyone have evidence to the contrary?