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Someone made a snarky remark at
the ENO [Eastside Neighborhood Association] Candidate Forum
about "the candidate who thinks money for Parks is a waste,"
due to his misunderstanding my voicing ambivalence on the
issue. Let me please clarify:
On one hand, I love Parks, and their vital role in a
vibrant, desirable city; BUT. . .
. . .I ALSO believe their care should be part of the general
budget, not a separate millage issue. This kind of millage
issue only occurs because of a failure of leadership in both
the Mayor's budgets, and the Council's rubber-stamping same.
. .
. . . PLUS, we are already grossly over taxed (twice the
national average), and part of me would love to see our
taxes decreased 1 mill, and thus our leaders forced to cut
unnecessary programs from the budget to assure our parks
were maintained, BUT. . .
. . . the cynic in me realizes that, should the millage
fail, our leadership would more likely throw the Parks Dept.
under the bus, instead of making hard choices about cuts
elsewhere, and then blame the people for not passing the
millage.
In the end, I will likely vote for the millage, knowing the
present leadership is neither willing, nor capable of
fiscally responsible leadership, & knowing that the millage
is earmarked for the Park system, and they can't skim it to
use elsewhere, as is their usual habit.
HOWEVER I wish to make it crystal clear that I, like many
other voters RESENT being placed in this position, & we
desperately hope for bold, innovative, new leadership after
November's election: people capable & willing to think out
of the box, make hard decisions, reveal & deal with
uncomfortable truths, decrease taxes; while also, assuring
that Lansing gets the basic city services it's been
promised, and has not received, in the last 8 years. . .
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