Mayor Suzette Cooke\u2019s statement (\u201cKent seeks applicants for city\u2019s new Financial Sustainability Task Force\u201d, Kent Reporter website) that a limit on property tax increases of 1 percent per year is the underlying structural problem in the budget process is factually incorrect.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Increases in budgetary spending paid for by taxpayers have more to do with decisions on how to spend tax revenue than actual costs. Which services are offered, and the amounts a city is willing to pay for them can and should be negotiated, based on their worth to the entire community.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n However, too often \u201ccity services\u201d wind up benefiting an elected official\u2019s political career more than the majority of residents. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The cost of city-subsidized mass transit is a prime example. Most tax-paying Kent residents travel to their destinations by car. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n However, not only do they have to subsidize the cost of buses and trains that disrupt their daily lives, they also have to put up with unpainted roads and pray that a piece of a bridge doesn\u2019t fall down.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The answer to revenue shortfalls isn\u2019t to increase tax rates on hardworking taxpayers; it\u2019s to find ways to lower costs with better decision-making. In this regard, limits on property tax increases should motivate decision makers not to throw money at projects and purposes that benefit the few at the expense of the many. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n If the mayor and the City Council can find ways to decrease property taxes, even by just a percent or two, they deserve to be re-elected. They might even deserve a raise.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2013 Lynda Accisano <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mayor Suzette Cooke\u2019s statement (\u201cKent seeks applicants for city\u2019s new Financial Sustainability Task Force\u201d, Kent Reporter website) that a limit on property tax increases of 1 percent per year is the underlying structural problem in the budget process is factually incorrect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-7840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7840"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}