Honesty Is Appreciated - Tax Increase On The Way

Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 10/7/08 @ 4:53 pm - Filed Under City Council

A local newspaper had a five question interview with outgoing city controller Pat Roller. The questions dealt with the looming budget crisis and what this means to taxpayers:

2) How will those changes affect future city budgets?

The 2009 budget came in balanced, which was great, and I always appreciate all the effort of the city employees. …

But the 1 percent (circuit) breaker does kick in in 2010, and that’s going to be a $10 million hit, a shortfall in the revenue. And that’s going to happen every year on a go-forward basis.

So there will need to be some changes, and those changes will include dramatic cuts in some fashion, whether it be in our parks or public works or public safety, which is 90 percent of the budget, or whether council chooses to utilize some of the tools the state has given to local government, that’s a decision that’s going to need to be made.

3) What will be the effect on citizens?

Citizens are going to see one of two things: Either dramatic service cuts or an increase in some kind of tax.

There’s going to probably need to be a lot of work done at the council level, the decision makers, to see what citizens want and what is the best decision for our community.

I don’t think she could be any more clear. There is either going to be cuts or a massive tax increase. Which one do you think the Henry administration is angling for? Surely our current city council won’t just kick this problem down the road one more year instead of beginning to deal with it now?

If the council does not make significant cuts to the budget starting this year there will not be enough political will to cut the necessary services next year and you will see a doubling of your income tax…

Comments

One Response to “Honesty Is Appreciated - Tax Increase On The Way”

  1. MRev. Kenneth White, Jnr. on October 8th, 2008 8:53 am

    Easy solutions:

    Private local business groups can sponsorship the park system by attraction and by location in exchange for advertising privileges which City Council can limit the scope of through ordinances and general policies.

    I have mentioned this before but it would be one way to resolve the short fall in the budgets.

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