The following is a post from Heavenly’s blog regarding Monday’s taxpayer protest. Heaenly and I will be attending and I urge anyone interested to show up and speak as the city council need to hear from citizens like you…
Tom Licata, former candidate for City Council in Ward 6, is organizing a Taxpayer protest during the Monday’s City Council meeting, 7PM City Hall’s Contois Auditorium.
Here is a recent letter to the editor of the Free Press from Tom: (Titles for the letters are usually determined by the Free Press)
Kiss should keep focus local
Memo to Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss: It appears you are restless and in search of a problem to solve. Rather than taking on the gun lobby or finding “solidarity” with illegal immigrants, stay closer to home and find solidarity with an oppressed group of Burlington taxpayers.
You know, I’ve never heard of a city or state that has been taxed into prosperity. Have you? Rather than having taxpayers continue to shoulder an unfair burden of their tax dollars supporting dysfunctional government processes, you could start with consolidating city services through an efficiency and effectiveness study. Then, move on to building a five-, 10- and 20-year economic growth strategy for our waterfront (hint: over time, tax revenues are determined by economic and productivity growth). For “peace-of-mind,” our citizens
deserve to have more certainty over their future tax increases. A “Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights,” which would limit tax increases to no more than inflation, would force you to set spending priorities the way that families and businesses do, and would require government to
live within its means.
Lastly, although you and many in your City Council may derive vicarious gratification from supporting our city’s public sector and teacher unions with generous and unaffordable benefits and pay packages, it’s time to stop these indulgences. It’s time to stop living in an ideological dream world, and begin the heavy lifting required to get this city back on track. Be restless no more!
TOM LICATA
Burlington
June 13, 2006 @ 12:00 am
Well said.