By Stephen Pinto
With all of Everett’s growth our taxes are still going to increase.
It’s clear now that the city council will never cut wasteful spending from the mayor’s budget.
After approving a one million dollar boat house to be built on the Malden river there is a good reason to begin looking more closely at expenditures and what makes sense to do and what does not.
The mayor and the city council need to start looking at spending in a much more serous and sensible manner.
Such as do we need it or is it just a nice thing to have.
Do we really need a boat house or is it nice to have?
Clearly the answer is we don’t need it. We can and will function quite well without it.
Did we need millions of dollars in decorative street lighting?
No.
Is it a nice thing to have? Yes.
Did we need $800 Christmas wreaths?
Could we have lived with something less expensive?
Of course.
Did we need to refurbish all of Everett’s parks at the same time? Could we have stretched it out over a several year period?
Of Course.
Did we need new street signs?
No.
Are they niçe to have?
Yes.
As much as I’d like to blame the mayor for all the overspending,
I can’t.
It all belongs in the lap of our city council.
They hold the purse strings. They vote and pass the budget. After they appropriated money for a $1 million boat house, we now know they’ll never make meaningful budget cuts.
And that makes the mayor very happy.
I just wish before council votes in the future, they ask themselves, do we need it or is it just a nice to have item.
How could they vote on a boat house when taxes just increased? And we are facing building a new police station and possibly a new school.
Renters are going to be hit hard with rent increases. Housing will never be affordable in Everett.
Council just keeps on spending. Even after receiving an unexpected $500,000 invoice from outside council for discrimination defense, no one asked a word about it.
And with more invoices in the pipeline, another $500,000 will go out the window before they can say Carlo Demaria.
Taxpayers and renters hold onto your wallets. Don’t spend too much for Christmas. The city hall grinches are coming after your money.
Financial storm clouds have been brewing over Everett for quite a while. Between loss of revenue, lawsuits, overspend- ing and infrastructure projects.
And yet the council keeps approving bloated budgets and wasteful spending. The casino money no longer exists. It’s being spent almost before we receive it. The spending shell games need to be taken more seriously by the city council. Time is now to control wasteful spending. It’s also time to investigate money and contracts given to GTA.
It’s called, do your job.
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Stephen Pinto comments on Everett issues. He is a longtime resident of Everett.