Hidden in a city council approved measure is a secret tax hike by Mayor Berry. The media will never report it as such, but it will make good fodder for any future Berry political run. The tax hike is hidden in the increase in trash pick up fees. They are being increased to cover that enterprise fund cost, which is okay. But it is also being increased to maintain street medians, which has nothing to do with trash pickup. This is something that normally would be funded by general tax receipts, but Berry and the Council don't want to admit that they needed to hike taxes in our sucky economy, so they hid this cost in the enterprise fund. Don't forget this when these councillors and Mayor run again. They are hiding in the shadows on tax hikes and not taking responsibility.
7 comments:
I'm so pissed at this hidden tax thing that I'm thinking, "OK, you want to sneak in refuse taxes, then I should just add all the recyclables to the garbage container." Hmmm?
You have touched on something that the Republicans want and many city hall observers suspect when you say "Don't forget this when these councilors and Mayor run again." Berry said this would be the last time he runs for Mayor, but in three years, like Chavez before him, his only option will be to run for re-election.
Berry will say he was encouraged to run to finish the work on APD, even though he is the one that destroyed APD. Berry, much like Martinez, needs to rely on apathy and a extremely low voter turn-out of Democrats, which is somewhat guaranteed in a municipal election.
Even with all about APD coming out, Berry still has a 58% approval rating amongst likely municipal voters and the media still is reluctant to lay any blame on Berry. The news media still gives Berry cover, just like Doug Fernandez gutting a Channel 7 expose report on Tazer when he added at the very end that Berry said the contracts were signed by the previous administration, even though Schultz was his Chief who negotiated and awarded the contracts.
Berry hid the tax you identified, relabeled it as a fee increase on purpose because he does not want to be held accountable for going against his "no increase in tax pledge" and the Dems went along with it. Yet the TV news media refuse to report the increase for what it is: a tax increase.
Street median maintenance is no longer being done by City workers or employees. This is one area, along with zoo construction projects and repairs, that Berry privatized. You may want to verify, but Median maintenance was turned over a few years ago to a company known as "Heads Up" with a huge contract. Heads Up is a big construction landscaping design company. Berry wanted to get rid of City jobs to reduce the size of government, so he privatized where he could. You will also discover that the owner's of Heads Up are friends of Berry's and they contributed to his re-election.
Berry is using Machiavellian tactics by trying to divide and conquer the citizens. He is having secret meetings with hand-picked people to negotiate their silence, while ignoring the victims of the abuse. Some of these hand-picked people have been thrown bones, which they happily took like a hungry dog. It was cheap advertising for Berry since he then had them go on the local “traditional” media to profess their love for him while they eat their bone. Fortunately the “new” media at the forefront of real investigation in NM, wouldn’t dare sell out to that kind of propaganda. So you think, Berry, that you will win over the majority of the citizens by your tactics to back up your corruption and con them into thinking you are doing the right thing?
See you at the June 21st March, 11-5, a family-friendly, non-violent rally with music, speakers and more, including “The people’s trial of Chief of Police Gordon Eden.”
http://www.apdprotest.org/
Just wait till you see what the victims and their grass-roots, united Movement has coming. You should have respected the citizens, listened to us and then stopped double talking and made some decisions. Even Jewel Hall is disgusted with your tactics as noted by the Albuquerque Journal article,
“Will there be a seat at discussion table for community regarding APD?”
http://www.abqjournal.com/407555/news/seat-at-table-for-community-on-apd.html
It’s going to be an interesting June and a long, hot summer for Berry!
The family of Mary Han sues her former law partner for fraud:
http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-8732-former-supreme-court-justice-named-in-lawsuit.html
“We don’t have time for distractions. We need to fix the problem.” This is what Obama, as our leader, had said and done with accepting Shinseki’s resignation, the Veteran's Affairs Secretary. BERRY, it’s time you also lead Albuquerque and either accepted resignation of Perry, YOUR city attorneys and Eden for the continued support of the police brutality and killing of citizens or, better yet, just resign yourself so we can get a real leader to fix this crisis.
http://krqe.com/2014/05/30/president-obama-press-conference/
BTW, Berry hangs out at the Home Depot on Eubank and Central a couple of times a week, buying supplies for his home in Four Hills. Apparently he considers that a priority over attending the city council meetings so he can address the concerns of the citizens.
Can you take one evening out of your week for working on your home and be at the city council meeting this Monday, Berry? The victims have a lot of questions for you and you really need to speak to the citizens of Albuquerque as our leader.
i spoke with someone that works with Heads Up as a temporary employee and he told me that he works for three months then he is laid off. He told me that he is paid $8.50 per hour while Heads Up and these temp agencies charge the city $16.00 per hour for his work. This is a tax payer ripoff and misuse of city money if it is true that these temp agencies are charing the city high rates. Getting rid of these private contractor temp agencies and paying the city employees more money would help all the small businesses in Albuquerque. The city employees are some of the lowest paid government employees in Albuquerque and I'm sure they would spend their money here instead of giving it to rich contractors. How do we find out how much money is paid out to these agencies?
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