Mayor Walsh's "Great Ride" at Taxpayer Expense

Mayor Walsh’s messages in the city newsletter boast of the last eight years being a “great ride”. Much of that "great ride” for him has come at the expense of increasing the city’s tax levy over 80% in those eight years. It's a great ride if one can spend, spend, spend.

Orono’s tax base and citizens' house assessments have never been higher in the city’s history. Inflated home values and new density developments have created the largest tax base from which to tax and spend. Repairing roads and maintaining parks is great but not creating a whole new fire department and going into debt to build a new supersized public works building when only a new outside storage area was needed. These new projects are costing the citizens over tens of millions of dollars. Instead of getting a break in tax rates when times are good, the Orono citizens are watching their property taxes rise and the city’s reserves dwindle.

As far as reserves go, Mayor Walsh’s spending has drained the capital parks fund hence he has to now annually levy for park money to get the fund back to zero. And many parks still lack basic upkeep. All of our sewer, water and stormwater funds were fully funded but now they are each being drained of over a million dollars to pay for the financial shortfall of the oversized public works building. This guarantees that monthly sewer, water and stormwater fees will remain high in the foreseeable future. And after all that additional spending, the new building does not have the new salt and commodities storage area built as there are presently no funds left to build it.

Mayor Walsh acts like he went out of his way to pay off the old city debt but that debt was scheduled to be paid off regardless of his actions. Instead he increased the debt to an all-time high by adding a $16 million debt obligation on the Orono citizens. And to top it off, this debt is spread out over 25 years vs the usual 15 years, so it will cost the Orono taxpayers another $5 million in interest.

The costs of starting up the Orono Fire Department are unknown - not even the city council or staff know what it is going to cost in the end. Just on financials alone, not considering the public safety aspect, this is unacceptable planning. One thing is known, it will be a very, very expensive fire department to support and operate.

Mayor Walsh paints a rosy picture but that comes from grandiose spending at the Orono taxpayers’ expense to make things look good. It is a classic example of government overspending when times are good so the ability to tax more is not as noticeable. Very expensive programs are being put in motion creating operating costs that will strap the taxpayers for years to come - does Walsh even care?

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