Image by Citizens for Limited Taxation
Tom Licata, former candidate for City Council in Ward 6, is organizing
a Taxpayer protest during the Monday's City Council meeting, 7PM City
Hall's Contois Auditorium.
Here is a recent letter to the editor of the Free
Press from Tom:
(Titles for the letters are usually determined by the Free Press)
Kiss should keep focus local
Memo to Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss: It appears you are restless and in
search of a problem to solve. Rather than taking on the gun lobby or
finding "solidarity" with illegal immigrants, stay closer to home and
find solidarity with an oppressed group of Burlington taxpayers.
You know, I've never heard of a city or state that has been taxed into
prosperity. Have you? Rather than having taxpayers continue to
shoulder an unfair burden of their tax dollars supporting
dysfunctional government processes, you could start with consolidating
city services through an efficiency and effectiveness study. Then,
move on to building a five-, 10- and 20-year economic growth strategy
for our waterfront (hint: over time, tax revenues are determined by
economic and productivity growth). For "peace-of-mind," our citizens
deserve to have more certainty over their future tax increases. A
"Taxpayer's Bill of Rights," which would limit tax increases to no
more than inflation, would force you to set spending priorities the
way that families and businesses do, and would require government to
live within its means.
Lastly, although you and many in your City Council may derive
vicarious gratification from supporting our city's public sector and
teacher unions with generous and unaffordable benefits and pay
packages, it's time to stop these indulgences. It's time to stop
living in an ideological dream world, and begin the heavy lifting
required to get this city back on track. Be restless no more!
TOM LICATA
Burlington
Tom also has some flyers about this issue to hand out to your
neighbors, to reach Tom: 658 8624
19 comments:
Although an external audit of the city's finances with the results available to all seems an obvious move, Kiss will never, ever allow it. He knows it would spark a REAL taxpayer revolt.
Yeah, and Kiss was on the grassy knoll in Dallas on that fateful day in 1963.
"Yeah, and Kiss was on the grassy knoll in Dallas on that fateful day in 1963."
Oh, so you think he will allow an audit? I guess we'll see.
For those that missed yesterday's Ch. 3 6 o'clock news, Mayor Kiss has now come forward with a new proposed budget, this time with a 6.5% tax increase.
Here's the text of the segment:
After much debate with the City Council, Mayor Bob Kiss came back to the table to offer a new city budget for 2007. First the mayor proposed a nine point four percent increase, then an eight point four percent increase. Today he came back with a compromise. He wants a six and a half percent increase for next year -- an extra two hundred seventy dollars for the average taxpayer. Most of the increase will go into the city employee pension fund. The mayor hopes that the city council will vote on the budget this coming Monday.
Allowing for an audit at this point (after already stressing the undeniable, imperative need for an increase) would be a blow to his pride. I don't see it happening - at least not until the city council shoots down the increase four or five more times. Then he might consent.
An audit would probably result in CEDO being gutted, among other things. The Progs would rather set the city on fire than give everyone a peek behind the curtain.
Attended last night's City Council public forum - nearly an hour for everyone that spoke to the council & Mayor Kiss. All councilors were present, except for Barbara Perry of Ward 6; and the meeting started about 17 minutes behind schedule... the council's work session went a little over time, as they could not come to consensus about the budget.
Some good points mentioned during the public forum:
(Sorry if I misspell the speaker's name)
-Paula Ciardelli (Wd 7): taxpayers are bailing out the city for past mismanagement, departments should be reviewed, renegotiate retirement/pension plans, and we should hold officials accountable for their mistakes
-Arthur Demaris (Wd 3): Make Burlington a sanctuary for taxpayers, have an outside firm evaluate the city
-Benjamin Weber (Wd 6):property taxes keep increasing with no end in sight, city's not looking to trim from budget, but instead to increase taxes
So long as politicians think that all problems are solved by throwing money at them, nothing will change in this city. Expect the budget to follow the school budget example; more is better, but even more is best, irregardless of the dwindling enrollments, and spiraling teacher benefit costs. I have heard from local school children that next year the schools plan to teach the entire third grade to speak Bantu? Shouldn't we spend money to teach the Bantu English instead? Are there so many Bantu in Burlington that this is absolutely imparative to our childrens education? Maybe actual education instead of social indoctrination is what we should focus on, since I have met 12th graders that can't find Iraq on a map, and don't know which states/countries border VT. Sad.
They don't need to find Iraq on the map. The military jet will fly them there. One way ticket, baby.
"I have heard from local school children that next year the schools plan to teach the entire third grade to speak Bantu?"
Please tell me that this is a joke.
First, CEDO is audited regularly by all of its granting agencies...and second, there is no language called Bantus, and the third graders will NOT be learning it....
"CEDO is audited regularly by all of its granting agencies"
There's a difference between auditing them to make sure they're not spending all their money on blow and doing a study to see whether the work they're doing is wanted or needed here. I mean come on, we are actually paying someone to coordinate that idiotic "burlington bread" program. Put each CEDO division to a citywide vote and half of them would disappear.
"and second, there is no language called Bantus, and the third graders will NOT be learning it...."
He said "Bantu" and yes, there is.
Whether or not they will be teaching it, I can't say. There was a resettlement of Somali Bantu to Burlington, in case you missed that, so it could be true.
"They don't need to find Iraq on the map. The military jet will fly them there. One way ticket, baby.
10:55 PM "
So sorry that you find light with our high school grad's failing geography skills, maybe you think they should spend more time learning civil disobedience or attending Model UN courses.
Bantu is what the Somali Bantu refugees speak, and some of the third graders learned it this year at C.P. Smith, although I was unable to determine if it was an after-school program, or part of a curriculum.
It's too bad Mr. Licata sounded and looked like an uptight kook. Either he takes some presentation training or I suggest that this revolt find a new spokesperson - fast!
"It's too bad Mr. Licata sounded and looked like an uptight kook."
Sorry, the "unhinged" characterization as an alternative to discussing the issues was officially beaten into the ground a few months ago by O'Reilly & Co. Don't you listen to Air America?
There's nothing wrong with kids learning Bantu and there's nothing wrong with an independent audit, as long as it's truly impartial and isn't itself unreasonably costly. Kiss is doing a good job. It's a drag that taxes have to go up, but that's life. The cost of everything goes up. If it's true "Burlington Bread" is run by CEDO, then I hope it's paid for with grants. I don't see the value of using play money. If people want to spend real money locally they will. The value of the US dollar may be falling, but it still spends fine in Burlington.
"There's nothing wrong with kids learning Bantu"
There is if it's paid for with our tax money.
"It's a drag that taxes have to go up"
Well, they don't. But it's a drag that Kiss et. al. are trying to convince us that they do, and it's a drag that the previous Prog administration botched the pension fund so badly and in so many ways that it's even an issue.
"The cost of everything goes up."
...including real estate values, and taxes with them, naturally. Tacking a tax rate increase onto that organic growth to teach kids a language they'll never use, to administer a fake money system, and to bail out the idiocy of a guy the Progs hailed as the second coming for years is a slap in the face to those few of us who already pay more into the system than we consume.
I agree with the suggestion that licata not be a spokesperson of sorts for a "citizens tax revolt"
He is WAY TOO strident and doesn't help garner the "big middle" where a lot of sympathy for tax relief may lie.
Whether people are turned on or off to an issue is material. Licata alienates people. If I were in favor of the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, I wouldn't want some burnout from the sixties as a leader or spokesperson for the cause.
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