Reardon’s no taxes is grandstanding

Published 9:19 am Saturday, September 13, 2008

Hooray that our County Council will submit to the public their own budget plan for 2009. As one of 15 elected charter review commissioners in 2006 who suggested to the public they approve a proposition to give the County Executive the authority for a two-year budget cycle, I am appalled that the Executive is proposing no new property taxes, when the county must raise road taxes by one percent as mandated in the County’s Comprehensive Plan.

It is pure political grandstanding for Executive Reardon. He knows the County Council has no choice but to raise property taxes to help fund the roads we need with this 20-year growth plan he approved in December of 2005. It appears his craftiness at shifting the burden of raising taxes to the council may fool some, but it does not fool all of us.

While I was also one of the most verbal opponents of mandating 20 years of property tax increases for road fixes in order to allow for a lot of new growth and development, Reardon thought it was a good idea and the pro-development council in 2005 thought so too.

Executive Reardon must stop playing games with the public’s trust. Let’s have honesty and transparency. If he wants to allow for all this new growth, then be honest about how it is going to be paid for. While development has slowed, there are many projects in the county’s transportation improvement plan that still need to be funded for the growth we have already experienced. And some of that funding comes through an increase in our property taxes.

If the County Executive doesn’t want to raise road taxes to pay for his growth plan, then he needs to whittle back the plan, immediately, including his approval of Fully Contained Communities.

Kristin Kelly