Last night the Troy City Council overrode the State's real property tax cap by a vote of 8 - 1. The nearly unanimous vote paves the way for tonight's budget vote. The proposed tax increase will be 4.9%. Ken Crowe II has the story.
District 1 Councilman Jim Gordon (R) was the lone nay. Previously, four councilpersons had rejected an override when the tax hike would have been 9.3%. This time, Councilpersons Wiltshire (At-Large), Anastasia Robertson (D-2) and Ken Zalewski (D-5) voted to override the cap. Those three, along with Gordon, will not be returning to the council next year. Robertson was defeated for reelection, Wiltshire and Gordon chose to run for mayor and Zalewski was term-limited out of office.
Frankly, were shocked that Wiltshire and Zalewski changed their minds. Wiltshire kept his promise to consider an override if the tax increase was 5% or less. Zalewski took to social media to ask the voters what they wanted.
According to the Crowe story: "Councilman Jim Gordon, a Republican, was the only council member to vote against the override at both meetings. He condemned the revised budget as built on one-shot revenues and the raiding of city funds."
He ain't wrong.
Mayor Elect Patrick Madden said the proposed budget was a "wing and a prayer."
He ain't wrong.
Council President Elect Carmella Mantello said, "we'll make it I swear, oh, oh, living on a prayer."
If you go back and look at the old budgets, including the Mayor's message to the council explaining the budget, you come to the realization that most of these budgets are built on one-shot revenues, optimistic revenue projections and slight-of-hand. We'll live and will forget all about this until next October. Then, we'll act shocked when we're told there may be fiscal difficulties.
Budget cuts will include limiting the use of vowels at the new Try City Hall and reduced paper clip consumption. Employees will be asked to bring their own writing implements to work and the city will be limited to only three fires a year in order to reduce Fire Department overtime. Any serious crimes will be confined to regular business hours.
Some perspective: the proposed 5% increase is less that Mayor Tutunjian's 6.5% increase for 2005.
17 comments:
Any blame starts and ends with Dworsky. Period.
Easy with that Steve talk. That's Carmella man.
And obviously, she missed the lecture.
Dworsky gone how many years? Harry still a spoiled little tool
......Raoul Duke
Carmellazila Rules! How's that transition team transitioning? Hey brother.
Yep, with all the incompetence and and childish antics being played out tonight by the very dems you people voted for lets point the finger at Carmella and Steve. This blog is officially DEAD.
We are paying for Dworsky's incompetence to the tune of $6 mill per year until 2021 or so. Not gone long enough, apparently.
What's the matter? Can't read anything longer than 100 characters with a hashtag?
I can live with this budget. No one like tax increases but it's half of the original. there's probably a little more that could be cut. Lets see what the new administration can do. We need to stay on top of this from day one, though. We can't just start talking in September or October.
I don't know. I think Democratus, while partisan, has taken shots at everyone when they deserve it. There was a Rep blog years ago that would never criticize a Rep and would never, ever say anything positive about any Dem. It also sucked but that's another story.
as you post anonymous...
For someone with CommieLib DNA, even Neanderthals concede Demo at least makes an above average effort to be objective.
This is copied directly from the link on the city's website. Clearly, a Commissioner of General Services is listed in the Charter approved by the voters on November 3rd.
B. Commissioner of General Services. There shall be a Commissioner of General
Services who shall be head of the department and shall have supervision and
control of the entities enumerated in paragraph “A” herein. The Commissioner
shall be appointed by the Mayor, subject to confirmation by the City Council, to
serve at the pleasure of the Mayor and may appoint, with the approval of the
Mayor, a City Engineer, a Traffic Engineer, a Superintendent of Streets and
Sanitation, a Director of Code Enforcement., and a Director of Parks and
Recreation.
The new charter does not take affect till July 1st 2016
Gordon is imploding cause he's nothing more than a child. Been telling people this for years. Wonder how his buddy in the Burg is gonna handle his pal Rogers getting a knife in his back.
Relax, Monica has it handled.
Walt
Who's more bitter, dems or repubs?
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