Mayor Henry is the same old style spender
Mayor Henry a few weeks ago was concerned the City would have to delay training new police officers and having to make tough decisions on where to cut the city budget. Has this mayor ever been laid off? Does this mayor know the value of a dollar? Recently the News Sentinel reported that this same Mayor Henry now states the city will match cash donations to the city and its partner organizations — Aboite New Trails, Greenway Consortium, New Haven and Adams Township Park and Recreation, and Northwest Allen Trails — up to $500,000 now through April 12. Mayor Henry states the city's $500,000 is coming from public works funding approved in the 2008 budget. Wrong, it is not coming from public works, but the taxpayers.
First, it is not his money to spend this way it is ours! Second how many people use the trail ways? Now don’t get me wrong, I was a very avid bike rider when I was young. I put more than 7,000 miles on a bike in just one year. I have ridden ten’s of thousands of miles on a bicycle over my lifetime, but really do we need to spend $500,000 on a bike trail? How much will it cost to maintain? How many people even use the trails?
When times are tough you tighten the belt. Any family that has had to do this knows that non-essential items go first. If I were prioritizing the list, I would cut the $500,000 from the public works, which goes a long way towards reducing the potential red ink long before I would consider a local income tax. If there is $500,000 of taxpayer money in public works for this type of expenditure, then there is certainly no reason for a local income tax.
The reason behind the property tax reform was to get control over spending. Mayor Henry has proven that nothing has changed. The City of Fort Wayne has gone wild with our money.
posted by William Larsen @ 10:35 PM
3 Comments:
I have no problem in spending this money on the greenway trails. I would like to see more money spent on fitness and health initiates. More trails could lead to more bike commuting opportunities. I ride my bike to work on occassions in the summer and it would be great to see the trails expanded. What we don't need is the $50 million boondoggle Maplecreast bridge.
If you're concerned about your health, then you should be worried about the condition that our sewers are in. We need to fix the sewers before we bother with any recreational projects.
I understand that the city is splitting the cost of the trail with Oprah. Perhaps Oprah could chip in to help fix our sewers as well?
Bob:
I WISH she would...we need those sewers a lot more than riding trails, that's for sure.
B.G.
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