In light of the spending shortfalls for education and the need to close the school funding gap, you wisely expressed a desire desire to explore revenue enhancements. As you stated, "I offered this suggestion last year, it was ignored and here we are again".
As you know I checked with you after the meeting to make sure I had not misheard you. You confirmed what I had thought. At NO time did the words "TAX INCREASE" ever come out of your mouth. Yet the Mayor twisted what you did say to go off on a tirade about raising property taxes in an election year and the difficulties of getting citizens to approve a Prop 2 1/2 levy. Luckily the meeting should be on tape and would expose the Mayor's erroneous interpretation.
Your idea of revenue enhancements included looking at marriage and death certificates,r fees for city service, and other such alternatives. Granted still sort of a back door tax increase but a far more politically palatable one.
Another thing to look at and consider is any fees and other payments made to the Lynn Public Schools for building usage during the filming of the recent Hollywood productions. Granted that would have only been a one-time infusion of cash but at least it would help resolve the past Net School Spending debt. It would nice for the public to know just how much we received and some accounting of the proceeds.
In closing I wish to thank you for your valiant efforts in standing up for the proper education of Lynn students on this matter!
Sincerely,
Stan
No comments:
Post a Comment