The Best Tax

Is a sneaky tax.

In Dan Weber's Memorandum to the City, he offers some interesting revelations.

First, he mentions the 9/23 budget. There was a budget put together on or before 9/23? Why has this not been made available to the public? How did Weber get access to it? Don't we have a Mayor and Council committed to transparency? Isn't transparency a major whereas in Resolution No. 2008-10-01? Doesn't the phrase "serve all stakeholders in a transparent manner" appear in the two-sentence mission statement? Isn't item (4) of the Values statement "As representative of the City of Dunwoody, we will be fiscally responsible and transparent"? Does item (6) not include "we will be communicative"?

It's not clear if or when the Mayor and Council had their transparency epiphany.

In discussing the harsh economic reality of starting and running a city, Weber lets it be known that the city, in the unpublished 9/23 budget, plans to follow the county's lead by continuing a 0.7 mil tax increase. Many citizens would be more than a little surprised at this, since before the referendum, all we heard was 2.04 mils, with a 1.0 mil cap. Oh, and we were going to get 25-30% better services if you believe our not-for-pay consultant.

Now we find out that our Mayor and Council have intended for some time to slide in 34.3% increase in city property taxes because they believe we won't notice.

It is disheartening to learn that our neighbors in Dunwoody are no better than our other neighbors throughout DeKalb when it comes to governance.

TOD