Council could not seem to come to a conclusion during the September 9th meeting. (which is still not posted online) and decided to vote for a compromise.
Instead of setting aside $100,000 needed for seal coating next year they chose to compromise at the suggestion of Mary Capra, dedicating approximately half of what is needed.
To her credit Linda Vickers voted against the resolution stating "you do not have a plan if that plan is not funded". Linda totally rocked!
According to Council minutes Tom Lee, Jeff Paar and Ben Fehrenbacher did not want to dedicate money to the road fund, as it would raise taxes for the citizens. Vickers wanted to set aside $100,000 but Capra the consummate politician came up with a compromise to dedicate not nearly enough to meet the City needs.
Oh but the way, the vote doesn't really count because they have "wiggle room" and can change their decision by December this year.
By Council's own admission, they have been trying to dedicate a road maintenance fund for the past five years to meet our needs and have failed and we are falling behind.
Look for the you tube video coming soon...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Why in the world would a road fund raise taxes on the citizens? That money should already be budgeted for!
This council needs to stop spending money on a dream and take care of business.
Fix our roads and stop giving our money to an engineering firm!
Sick, disgusting and unbelievable!
WATCH & SEE FOLKS - it appears that the Mayor & Council continue to speak out of both sides of their mouths. They claim that they won't set aside $ for infrastructure (in this case roads) because they don't want to raise your taxes or increase the City's deficit putting us further in the hole. What they will fail to mention every time is that THEY are the ones who put us in the hole in the first place, thus increasing our taxes by the maximum allowed by law - 6.6%! An increase to our deficit (2005 = $500K to 2009 = $12 MILLION) will invariably increase our taxes. Third grade logic here.
This Mayor & Council continue their mantra of 'we need new business to lower or cap taxes'. THEY created the tax burden, thus the CREATED need for more business due SOLELY to THEIR reckless spending habits.
This is why folks, GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT BE IN THE BUSINESS OF DEVELOPMENT. OUR public servants, (government both big & small) should protect us, take care of basic infrastructure and have limited regulation power to prevent abuse. Much else beyond this and things will run a muck - like our exploding deficit & tax burden!
Notice that Dallas Larson transcribed the minutes for the 9/9/09 council minutes. Boy, talk about sugar coating!
There is no mention of how they have neglected our roads for the past FIVE years... As stated by Tom Lee and Linda Vickers during this meeting! There is also no mention of the 40+ minute argument they had on this matter.
Instead, Larson refers to the measly 59,000 levy as giving the City more "flexibility" for our future road maintenance. The fact that over $100,000 is needed just to keep on track for next year has been overlooked is scary! There is NO pavement management plan if it is not funded!
No wonder Tom Lee resigned.
But hey, we have all those lovely and expensive downtown lights to look at don't we?
Oh, and why are the last council minutes not posted online yet? Didn't the State slap their hands for this issue?
What exactly do Dallas Larson, Kim Stephen and Theresa Bender get paid for if not to keep this basic information updated.
Post a Comment