I really hate beating a dead horse, but here we go again …
Reading Candidate Imker’s most recent letter to The Citizen, the first thought that came to me is 2009 all over again; by that I mean here are promises made and promises broken.
Look, in Mr. Imker’s March 24, 2009 letter to The Citizen, he said, speaking of the last council, “… How out of touch can they be? Our priority right now is the budget. It seems they’ve relegated that to settling us with a tax increase or using more city reserves. How easy is that? Heck, anyone can solve the budget problem right now if that’s all they had to do! …”
On May 26, 2010, The Citizen article titled, “Proposed PTC Budget includes tax hike; Imker vows to fight it,” said, “Outspoken Councilman Eric Imker contends the city should use neither a property tax increase nor city reserves.”
Then on Aug. 20, The Citizen reported, “Peachtree City Councilman Eric Imker, who campaigned for office on a pledge to not increase city taxes, broke a deadlocked city council (3 to 2) and voted in favor of a 1.25 mill property tax rate increase Thursday night.”
Let me tell you, the readers, not only did he vote for it, he proposed it as part of a budget proposal including spending the reserves down to 20 percent. I was there. Two broken promises.
Now in all fairness to Mr. Imker, he admitted he broke his promise about taxes and said, “… while I will stun some of my supporters by voting for the tax increase, it was something that had to be done …” Really?
And who did Mr. Imker blame? The rest of the council, of course. He said he was forced to do the tax increase or the state would step in and take over. And because the rest of the City Council didn’t have the courage, spine nor guts to support his cuts to employees who had already been cut the year before.
Now that’s complete nonsense. All he needed to do was to support Councilman Sturbaum’s and Mayor Haddix’s proposal. He could have just voted NO and forced the city to continue with the current budget, forcing adjustments and cuts along the way.
What he didn’t have to do was propose a 1.25 mill increase in property taxes, then vote for it. What he didn’t have to do was to propose draining the reserves of Peachtree City. What he didn’t have to do was to propose more tax increases in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
And now, in his most recent letter to The Citizen, he claims the following, “(2) Consistently monitoring the budget to ensure there would not be any new tax increase in 2012 …”
What irony. I’m sure it has nothing to do with 2012 being an election year for him.
Lastly, Mr. Imker said, “… if we continue with the plan and vision I have outlined, I believe we won’t need any more taxes increased ever!…”
Really? Ever? No tax increases? Then why did you, Mr Imker, propose a .644 mills tax increase for 2013 thru 2015?
Why did you base it on the claim that the economy had bottomed out and was turning around when we all know better?
Mr. Imker, are you trying to impress Mr. Obama or Harry Reid, or are just trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the citizens of Peachtree City, Ga., just to be re-elected?
To you, the readers of this article, anyone doubting what is written here only needs to look at the 2012 Peachtree City budget online; see the increases and uses of the reserves yourself on page 27, where Mr. Imker’s projection is shown.
As I’ve already stated, this appears to be 2009 all over again; but when 2012 rolls around, if Mr. Imker is re-elected, it will be the rest of the City Council that did not support his cuts and even though his intentions were good, the economy did not improve, so he will have no choice but continue raising taxes.
Even scarier is the simple reality that his .644 mill increase is based on a bottoming out of a bad economy into an improving economy. What will the actual increase be when in fact the economy keeps sliding?
In closing, Mr. Imker has no problem claiming he was the first to discover budget problems, when in fact Mr. Sturbaum and Mayor Haddix have been talking and working on these issues since 2008.
Also his claim that he should get credit for, “(7) Proposing a facilities authority enabling us to begin the repair of our neglected infrastructure. The first bond with this authority includes structuring the loan at around 2 percent, saving the taxpayers over half a million dollars.”
I guess he either failed to read where this issue was talked about on the blogs and on Aug. 22 where Mayor Haddix responded to a blogger saying, “Fact is our City Attorney brought the Facilities Authority to the City Manager who presented it to Council,” or did Mr. Imker purposely leave this info out? One thing is for sure, the city manager did not directly go to Mr. Imker nor anyone else privately on the council.
Fact is, staff compiled the financing list and did the bond work, not Mr. Imker or anyone else on the council.
Sorry, Eric.
Mr. Imker, you not only break promises, but also have no problems taking credit for what you have not done. Now you want us to bite again?
It’s time for you, Mr. Imker, to keep at least one promise, and that is to not run for a second term.
Vote for Steve Allen.
Michael Posey
Peachtree City, Ga.
