What has Orono become at the hands of Mayor Walsh's imagination?

During the 2/12/24 City Council meeting, Mayor Walsh spoke of “imagining” all sorts of spending opportunities for Orono. Before he was mayor, he had a different tune. In 2011, he is on record saying “his goals are that the City lives within what they have and that they need to start saying no to different expenditures unless the residents are convinced we absolutely need it”.

Did becoming mayor, and seeing he could have all sorts of glory projects to put his name on change his tune? Did Orono’s large increase in the tax base from inflated home assessments make him lose all sense of fiscal conservatism? Why has he gone on such a spending spree?

How about “imagining” having a lower tax rate to compensate for our inflated home values? Why can’t we have lower utility rates now that there is added development and density to spread out the cost of our infrastructure?

And why is he afraid to ask the residents if there is a need for many of these projects and higher rates? Is he afraid they will say no? Is that why there have been no town halls or surveys done to see if all this spending is desired by the citizens?

Time to “imagine” electing a new city council with people who value our hard earned tax dollars. New representatives that will take the time and effort to be transparent and reach out to the citizens for their comments. Time to elect new people that don’t “imagine” what they can do with other peoples’ money.

#togetherwearebetter @friendsoforono