From Patrick McGrady:
The Aberdeen City Council hearing on May 9th was held in reference to the “constant yield” tax rate. The city is required to have a hearing like this because the Mayor is proposing to raise taxes and not accept the constant yield rate.
The Mayor worked down the last minute to get the tax rate down a hair from last year’s .69 per $100 to the proposed .68. He cut some spending, but he budgets for a pay increase for all city employees, adding to the total cost of government in Aberdeen.
This is a tax increase because the city revenue is increasing from last year to this year. If the Council wants to keep the size of government the same, they need to accept the constant yield tax rate of .6745, which will mean they will have to cut approximately another $73,000 from the budget. (based on calculations using an assessable base of $1,328,669,309 provided by the City).
We need to cut further. Let’s act now to find the tough cuts so that next year, when the triennial assessment for Aberdeen comes up again, we don’t have to make last-minute drastic cuts to services.
The City Council and Mayor must remember that while they are responsible for paying the employees of the City, the Council and Mayor work for the taxpayers and must be forward-looking stewards of taxpayer money. I have no doubt that the City employees work hard, but if the Council wants to pay them more this year, they should find cuts elsewhere in the budget to pay for it.
We talk about “fees” and “taxes” a lot. The Council recently approved a series of “fee” increases, and last year, they added another $76 per year to every homeowner’s water bill. Now the City is choosing to take more money than they received last year.
The City council is raising the water rate as well. Can you afford to pay more for water?
Residents of the City of Aberdeen surely have not seen a pay raise in the last couple of years– the City must consider the costs of growing government. Do we as taxpayers get any added benefit for the additional costs?
The City should cut at least another $73k to get the rate back to the Constant Yield. Let’s start by cutting the $16,000 per year we pay to the “Maryland Municipal League” and $2,000 per year to the “National League of Cities” — This is taxpayer money that is used to lobby for tax and spending increases at the State and National level. What else should the city cut?
I chose to make Aberdeen my home because I believe in the future. I don’t believe increasing the cost of government to Aberdeen families takes us down the path to prosperity. If you agree, send an email to each of the members of the council at:
Mayor Michael Bennett mbennett@aberdeen-md.org
Councilwoman Ruth Elliot relliott@aberdeen-md.org
Councilman Bruce Garner bgarner@aberdeen-md.org
Councilwoman Sandy Landbeck slandbeck@aberdeen-md.org
Councilwoman Ruth Ann Young ryoung@aberdeen-md.org
You can also call the City at 410-272-1600 or Fax them at 410-273-7402. Ask them to only approve a budget that doesn’t grow the size of government.
I hope the Council can work to cut out more spending so we can all afford to keep Aberdeen a great place to live and work.
Patrick McGrady
at least the city of Aberdeen has the guts to tell it like it is and raise fees and the constant yield tax to PAY FOR THE SERVICES REQUIRED BY LAW and pay its employees a fair wage because things do go up in price.
You do realize that on a 200K house that is about $10 you would save? Do you favor the county using the constant yield?
Another false choice by the ****, CDEV! If taxes are too high and you object, you shouldn’t object if it’s only $10.
remember only liberals and progressives stoop to name calling!!!!!
I am simply saying $10 is not alot and combined with the savings from the county not using the constant yield like you advocated for a few years ago you will still have lower taxes!
Funny porter that is not what your original post said!
City council meeting tonight at 7PM! This is the audio of a robocall that I just sent out to voters in Aberdeen:
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B6OyHKoh8uOkYzgxODMwN2EtMTk1Yy00YzE3LTg4ZWYtNTFkYmQxYzk1M2I3&hl=en_US
This is Patrick McGrady calling again.
You and I are the Aberdeen Community.
Let’s join together as a community tonight at the Aberdeen City Council meeting at 7PM at city Hall.
The proposed 2012 budget is on the agenda for a vote tonight. The budget included higher fees, higher water rates, and more government spending.
Will the elected city council and Mayor be able to look us in the eyes and then vote to increase spending and raise our water bills?
Let’s join together tonight, Monday, May 23 at 7PM to show the Council and Mayor that we are watching their vote.
Together we can keep Aberdeen affordable for families and businesses.
You can also call the city at 410.272.160 to ask them not to vote for increases in the budget, because we can’t afford it.
Hope to see you there 🙂
i watch the aberdeen city council meetings on the local cable channel. about six months ago, i watched the council trade/exchange a parcel of land of greater value to a developer for a parcel of land with no value. what struck me was the quickness and lack of analysis performed. i was trying to figure out why they just didn’t rent the land to the developer in some kind of long term lease arrangement to get some income for the city, or sell it for it’s full market value which would have been considerable because the developer wanted it for some BRAC office complex they were building (ultimately would have been rental office space). i also watched the aberdeen city council turn down (many years ago) an expansion proposal by frito-lay citing water usage as the issue in favor of BRAC construction everywhere. Businesses will pay ANY tax no matter how high, as long as there is demand for their goods and services (marginal productivity theory). There is a cost to being far from Aberdeen and Edgewood, because it means employees spend time in the car commuting between the client and their offices and are unproductive. On the other hand, companies that are too close to the base or on site eventually lose their reputation for being objective, honest, and are essentially “in bed” with the government perpetuating wasteful pork, and in some cases fraud and abuse. The city of Aberdeen had opportunities, but blew them with their country bumpkin mindset.