From JULIE BUDD:
I was able to speak during the public comment portion of tonight's city council meeting. I shared how local cities are suffering with this economy and how conversations are taking place across the country about priorities. I mentioned our town forum and the needs that were shared there. I said we do want to support our soldiers and we do want a strong defense. The local Burlington city budget that they just approved is about 50 million. Our county's portion of the defense budget is 217 million. Therein lines the need for a conversation about priorities.
The Burlington City Council is to be commended for presenting and approving a balanced budget without a tax increase. They must have been afraid no one would notice, so they spent a considerable amount of time patting themselves and the city staff on the back. So yeah for us. No city tax increase.
One woman spoke emotionally about the foreclosures and lack of jobs. These are obviously huge problems locally.
The city of Burlington is planning an economic summit the end of June. By working on these problems together we will have a chance to share the priorities conversations with the council once again. I plan to persist with ideas to recreate our economy (email me separately if you want to help with economic development)[[email protected]] as we push for more conversation about the size and scope of our "defense".
It was wonderful to have two rows of supporters. I appreciated being able to turn around and say, "these people are here to support discussing priorities." So thanks for coming everyone!. And for those who weren't there, we are plodding along, making slow, steady progress. The city council practiced their poker faces and did not respond to the foreclosure comments or my comments or Patrick Harmon's transportation comments. So we don't know anything by the lack of public response.
Privately, the council members that we talked to suggested we keep coming back. So that we will.
I was able to speak during the public comment portion of tonight's city council meeting. I shared how local cities are suffering with this economy and how conversations are taking place across the country about priorities. I mentioned our town forum and the needs that were shared there. I said we do want to support our soldiers and we do want a strong defense. The local Burlington city budget that they just approved is about 50 million. Our county's portion of the defense budget is 217 million. Therein lines the need for a conversation about priorities.
The Burlington City Council is to be commended for presenting and approving a balanced budget without a tax increase. They must have been afraid no one would notice, so they spent a considerable amount of time patting themselves and the city staff on the back. So yeah for us. No city tax increase.
One woman spoke emotionally about the foreclosures and lack of jobs. These are obviously huge problems locally.
The city of Burlington is planning an economic summit the end of June. By working on these problems together we will have a chance to share the priorities conversations with the council once again. I plan to persist with ideas to recreate our economy (email me separately if you want to help with economic development)[[email protected]] as we push for more conversation about the size and scope of our "defense".
It was wonderful to have two rows of supporters. I appreciated being able to turn around and say, "these people are here to support discussing priorities." So thanks for coming everyone!. And for those who weren't there, we are plodding along, making slow, steady progress. The city council practiced their poker faces and did not respond to the foreclosure comments or my comments or Patrick Harmon's transportation comments. So we don't know anything by the lack of public response.
Privately, the council members that we talked to suggested we keep coming back. So that we will.