Not another tax

So now we're supposed vote for a "park authority" tax.

First we agree to a Save Our Streets tax, then we approve a regional fire authority. Did someone forget to tell us that our fire authority would be controlled by a board that will never include anyone from the private sector? Does Joe Public know it is run by the mayors and a few council members from Algona, Auburn and Pacific? Probably not.

The City signs us up for a "regional jail" that costs us a ton of money and then gives our well run court system to King County.

We build an expensive annex on Main Street and throw away millions on a promenade to nowhere. Reliable sources tell me that money has been taken from SOS funding to do utility work and that the M Street underpass is costing in the neighborhood of $27 million.

Another reliable source has our fair city in debt to the tune of $70 million at a time when the golf course and cemetery are losing money and the mayor is chatting up a reporter about building a community center that we most likely cannot afford to maintain.

Just how in debt is the City? And how much is it going to cost us to send council members all over the country to attend meetings for these National Cities committees the now belong to?

Just how much of our SOS money is really being spent on the neighborhood streets it is supposed to be used for?

– Frances Cooper

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