And the Beat Goes On

I continue to appear before groups and meet new people almost every day. The main question, of course, is taxes and what we can do about them. I have never promised to CUT taxes, because I know that may be an empty promise. With the Governor's latest budget, there come some enormous aid cuts, and municipalities are included in the slicing. We all know that electricity, gas, and other day to day operating expenses increase every year, and we don't have much say about it.

So what do I plan to do about taxes? I will do my very best to hold the line. One thing I did repeatedly on the school board was work on budgets. I can promise you, I will do a line by line analysis of any budget placed before me, and I will try to make sure that everything being spent is accounted for. I want to understand every expenditure, and if I don't understand, I will ask. I know we have fixed costs such as contracts, bonds etc., but where there are items that can be cut, I will certainly try to do so.

Bonded indebtedness is another issue I plan to address. It is so very easy to go out to bond anything we want, but this bonding has to be paid for over time. The taxpayer's obligation to pay for these bonds can significantly impact taxes. I want to make sure that if we DO go out to bond, the cost of the bonded items is pretty tightly monitored. And I would be very, very cautious about accepting only one single bid for anything.

Surplus is another issue I would like to address. In my past experience, surplus was applied to the bottom line and was used to reduce taxes. I want to make sure I know what our surplus is, how it got there, and what amount, if any, can be applied to reduce the tax impact of a budget.

None of this can be done in a vacuum. I know Mike Reina and Mike Kafton are as concerned as I am, and like me, they are going to be right in there fighting to hold the line.