Tutty wrote the following paragraph in that post:
"Freeport police and firemen, at least temporarily, should be thanking their lucky stars that candidate Gaulrapp is busy trying to get the backing of Illinois' labor unions as he attempts to advance his political career. Tutty doubts that these contracts will be workable for the full four years, there just simply won't be the money."
When candidate Gaulrapp signed these union contracts he sent out press releases to everyone, several Rockford television crews showed up to broadcast the candidate Gaulrapp spiel that City of Freeport budget numbers were now solid enough to support these contracts.
Fast forward to the present day and tonight the administration of candidate Gaulrapp is asking the Freeport City Council to exercise home rule powers to get around the property tax extension limitation law (PTELL) or "tax caps" as it is often called to raise Freeport's property tax levy by 20%.
If they don't do this, look for them to exercise home rule powers to raise one of the other numerous taxes that have been created by home rule powers. Since 2003, as alderman or mayor, candidate Gaulrapp has reached into the home rule bag of tricks at least two dozen times to either incur public debt or create a tax to continue to fund the status quo.
Why can't the City of Freeport live within its means? Candidate Gaulrapp sometimes talks of hard "cuts" his administration has made. This makes Tutty roll on the floor with laughter. Year after year, the City of Freeport budget has grown larger than the previous years. This has not been the case in other local municipalities, including Rockford. In these municipalities the "cuts" have been real. They don't have home rule powers to raise revenue on a mayoral whim.
But with home rule powers, the City of Freeport does not have to live within the same reality faced citizens every day, they can increase their revenue (and decrease yours) any time candidate Gaulrapp can get four aldermen to vote his way.
As always, yours in honesty, Tutty Baker tutty.baker@gmail.com
Dear Tutty,
ReplyDeleteIt won't be too much longer that Gaulrapp will even be Mayor. After we vote in a moral, ethical, and truthful candidate is when we will all be able to work together to make Freeport a better place to live. Right now no one who lives, and/or owns business wants to co-operate because the current administration, minus a few -are tossing our future to the wind because they don't check the facts. Once certain people are voted out of office there will be many more people come out of the woodwork to help put this town back together. Right now, we are not going to waste our time and resources, which is what has happened already under Gaulrapp's tenure.
He knows his chance for congress is washed up completely because he has been spending more time at City Hall. Now he just has to try to show us how concerned he is about Freeport. He thinks he has a chance to win a third term as mayor...LOL.
Maybe he can get his old job selling false teeth back.
Goodbye George!
ReplyDeleteKind of Off Topic/ below but I want to vent:
ReplyDelete/
I so miss Mayor Macleroy whom I will never forget for the fact that after "retiring" calmly explained to the needed some help in charge they "couldn't do that" and cited the common constitutional / rule of law fairness principle that precluded such an unfair and "obviously illegal" action. /
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I get the disturbing feeling our good adults in charge are taught how to do things by Washington DC and State elected and media sound bites even about "business" by a sort of osmosis. " A good business borrows, a good city borrows. etc."
On a similar note to the article I saw on the Christmas trip tollways ESE are doubling on Jan 1st.
$3.80 for one toll, $1.90 for Ipass users...and $1.60 and $.80
So here comes the bailout inflation.
Seems not so fishy how government is the first to be "reactionary" - with a 100% tax inflation rate in my cited instance.
Can you say conspicuous ?