What are the priorities? Brandenburg knows.

I am happy to see Mary Brandenburg take a stand regarding the county wide tax increase. Mary said, “A 15 percent tax increase in the tax rate is unconscionable in the kind of economy we’re in right now.”

Lake Worth raised our taxes. That wasn’t all that Lake Worth did. Lake Worth raised every possible thing it could raise. Joe Kroll said that he only raised his area of responsibility, solid waste, by 72 cents. Some have convenient memories. The Mayor says he had to do what he did because Lake Worth was getting $2 million less in taxes, money needed to operate the city.

Raising taxes during a recession is just plain stupid on so many levels. Lake Worth, once again, jacked up taxes when its residents could afford it the least. Our City Manager and Commission, that goes along with everything Stanton wants to implement, say they have no choice. Remember -- they did have a choice. They made that choice the other night when they set the millage and raised everything by ridiculous percentages. Example: beach decals had already been raised by 100%. Then they raise it again by another 50%. All they did was sock it to the people. They never considered the problems...never even talked about them.

I brought up the deplorable conditions of our shuffleboard court building and all five of them plus the City Manager just stared at me. Now we have Commissioner Jennings packing City Hall with poor people with code officer "grievances"--her reason for eliminating code in our city...her reason to attract MORE illegal aliens into Lake Worth. So what happens? The City Manager goes along with the "police state" mentality...quid pro quo going on. There are just some issues where politics never should be considered. Properties get worse; property values go down further. What happens next year?

It has to make you wonder why a city such as ours is in such bad shape. I always say, look to management. Look for the waste. Let’s get an audit. Don’t allow the fox to watch over the hen house. NO CHICKENS! It is time we start addressing the problems in our city. Instead, no one seems concerned.

Our Utility is a total mystery to all of us. We keep wondering why is it not making any money? I believe that it is. But what does the Commission do? They elect to raise our electric rate with some stupid reasons. Can anyone tell us what the Administrative Fee of $3, 991,299 is for? Can anyone explain what this Contribution to the City of over $4 million is for? It just seems that the Utility is a cash cow for the City. The recent long-term financial projection paid by the City to an outside source was based on figures provided to them by our City. There are things built-in to this budget that only certain people understand. Now we have the City wanting to raise our electric rate every year for the next 5 years.

You have Utility employees who tell them how to save money there, that they can do the job rather than hire an expensive outside contractor and what happens? They get fired for insubordination. Why is there NO audit? You have candidates running for office who avoid the topic of our city's condition. You have citizens that organize an event to turn a parking lot into a park for a day taking their minds off of what is real.

Where are our priorities? What domino game are we playing? What Voodoo Budget do we get? Let's call Mary.