Dr. Susan Thomas slipped one in last night in a routine report to update the Fayetteville City Council on what Mayor Coody's staff has been doing in pursuit of the Council's top priorities. Her remarks on impact fees must have caused some confusion when she said staff were reviewing multiple drafts of water and sewer impact fees for an October report to the council. Dave Jurgens, water and sewer director, has proposed a schedule to raise water and sewer rates with a proposed rate increase ordinance being placed on the council agenda by September 28.The real bomb came when she revealed that, even though the City Council has never voted to support a real estate transfer tax and had voted on August 23 to revisit road impact fees, that Mayor Coody and his staff were continuing to push at the state level to initiate a real estate transfer tax, joining the real estate developers in their scheme for shifting their costs to the citizens.
Before Public Policy Adviser and Information Officer Susan Thomas Ph.D. does much more to swap the the Mayor's plans to raise taxes and rates for the Council's priorities, she might want to look for ways to cut the fat from the city budget. A good place to start would be her own office. Three years ago, before Dr. Thomas Ph.D. replaced an experienced professional policy planner, the office got by on a total budget of $98,403 that included salaries for 1.5 employees, materials, supplies, services, and charges. This year, the office budget has ballooned to $148,840 -- a 51% increase in only three years. Someone needs to ask what we are getting for our money before they start raising our taxes.
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