The Race to The 2017 Tax Anticipation Note

Strap yourselves in, here we go!

From The Citizens' Voice:

W-B mayor misses deadline to submit amended budget

There's no point in beating up on a newly seated mayor who happens to be disdainfully saddled with the former mayor's disputed budget. That is, a budget the new mayor fervently claims is a financial albatross. But if this so-called defect-spending budget now demands that cutbacks be made, we have to wonder why they weren't proposed in the first place--before the repeated attempts to enact a hefty property tax increase. 

Short-term, the very last thing the bedraggled residents of this city can afford is a hefty property tax increase. Long-term, they can likewise ill-afford an increased debt service payment. All of which demands that the current team arrive at a balanced 2016 budget by way of increased revenues, a reduction in the size of the workforce, less material usage and, or witchcraft. As for 2017, the aforementioned suggestions are wholly applicable, sans the prohibitively expensive eye of newt. .

And laying blame on the former mayor for any perceived current woes addresses nothing and solves nothing. Buck up, deal with it and let's move forward. What else is there?

Later

Tax Hike Hearing: Wilkes-Barre

 From WBRE...

Tax Hike Hearing: Wilkes-Barre: People in Wilkes-Barre will not see a property tax hike for this year.

Discursiveness on parade or:  You'll shoot your eye out, Mayor.

G'nite

Fractional Divisions Thereof

Congrats!

 Mayor Tommy is gone!



Can't we just make a copy of Scranton's budget?

Later

Budgetary Do-Over?

One plus one equals two. Unless...

"I’m worried the city could potentially go bankrupt at some point."---Tony George, as reported by The Citizens' Voice, 12/5/2015

From The Citizens' Voice:

George revises amended budget proposal

From The Times Leader:

Wilkes-Barre Mayor George amends proposed budget changes after public rebuke

So, are we in dire financial shape, or are we not? Does anyone in this administration actually know? Or are we simply winging it as we go? Is this a full-fledged tax increase? Or merely half a tax increase?

There seems to be a vast distance between the actual numbers and the purported numbers. Wiggle room. Wiggle room after the political hires. But with that, be mindful that distance, in this troubling case, creates indifference. Or, as some might say, irrelevancy.

Later

The Buck Stopped Back There

The latest from City Hall...

Tommy was mean to me.

Read all about it at the Citizens' Voice site.

Later

In W-B, Rules Are For The Fools

Fools. 
  
You know, fools. As in, the electorate, Or, perhaps, the taxpayers. Fools!

A snippet from the city's published rules...

 Sec. 2-107. - Residency.
(a)
Required. All persons employed by the City of Wilkes-Barre, and members of boards, authorities and commissions, shall be residents of the city, unless specifically excused by action of city council.
(b)
Certificate of residency; liability for city taxes. All city employees and members of boards, authorities and commissions shall be required to sign a certificate of residency, and that said certificate shall declare his or her residence to be within the City of Wilkes-Barre, and the understanding that he or she is, and intends to be, liable for all validly-enacted taxes which are applicable to residents of the City of Wilkes-Barre.
(Ord. No. 19-76, § 8.02, 7-8-76; Ord. No. 

Going forward, I would suggest that the rules be amended rather than willfully ignored.

I'm just saying.

Buh-bye

Way-points on the Hoosegow Trail.

Yeah, Way-points.
 

Bar patrons packing heat tend to be transitory.

Case in point: Some years ago, um, about 16 years ago, the City of Wilkes-Barre forced the closing of a "nuisance bar" called Chu's. With that, the clientele moved to a new, nearby joint called Desi's Pizza. After Desi's was ordered to shut, the clientele moved down the street a ways, while the owners demanded remonstrance in court.

Here's a snippet of that aforementioned legal tussle...

Between the opening of the Restaurant and March of 2000, the customers patronizing Desi's were predominantly white.   At some time in March of 2000, the City of Wilkes-Barre, its mayor (Thomas D. McGroarty) and chief of police (Anthony J. George), and David W. Lupas, the District Attorney of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (collectively the “defendants”), acted in concert to bring about the closure of another bar and restaurant called Chu's. Chu's clientele consisted primarily of African-Americans and Latinos.   After Chu's closed, many of its former patrons became regular customers of Desi's.

The residents of Wilkes-Barre are predominantly white.  Following the closure of Chu's and the change in the ethnic composition of Desi's clientele, people living in the area surrounding Desi's began to complain to the defendants about problems allegedly created by Desi's.  Residents complained that Desi's' presence increased “crime, noise[,] and other disturbances.”  App. at 39.   These complaints, however, were in fact motivated by a desire to drive African-Americans and Latinos out of Wilkes-Barre, and the defendants shared this objective.   This desire and “public criticism” of the defendants for failing “to provide adequate policing and law enforcement” in the city motivated the defendants to “embark[ ] on a campaign to close down” Desi's.

So, in effect, while shuttering one bar to calm things down in one neighborhood may pacify a few angry voters, said action simply forces the bad actors to pick up their firearms and spare clips and move to yet another unsuspecting nearby beer garden.

I offer no solution, just an unwanted observation. There might not be an actual solution, just shot-up way-points.

Later

The Great Circular Sh*t Storm

Seriously, kiddies.

If you can't navigate a circle, it's time to consider chain-smoking with the pilot lights having been disengaged. Just saying.

Good luck.

Indigenous Flapdoodle

Time to lock the doors, close your eyes and drink very, very heavily.




Later

Zero Sum Budgeting

Let the games begin...

Wilkes-Barre is broken, busted and broke, but the neighbor needs a job

Enjoy