Opinion letter: With Fall River water/sewer bill hike, don’t allow new Diman funding issue on ballot

In the interest of plain common sense…

PLEASE do not allow the mayor to put the Diman funding issue on the upcoming ballot,
though I’m confident that he will produce a dog & pony show, with all his department heads standing beside him in a false sense of unity, (ref. J.C.II on the Durfee exclusion vote plea).  The veiled threat that the various departments will have to make “serious cuts in service” if this measure isn’t allowed on the ballot notwithstanding, poor management of current (and past) resources does not qualify as an emergency.

Anyone with a functioning brain should be able to see that a 61% approval rate in that debt exclusion consisted of city union employees and their families concerned that there would be massive layoffs-offs. (Who can blame them?) This is likely to happen again.

We’ve already been advised of a 24% hike in the water/sewer bills for next FY, while just about every single fee charged for various permits have been “adjusted”.

Let’s not forget that we have a Chief Executive in Boston, backed by a spineless legislature already sending along their blessings to allow the cities & towns to raise excise taxes (along with others supposedly governed by the Prop 2 1/2 law) above the mandated rates.

I really believe that it’s incumbent on all of you to advocate for the actual taxpayers in our once great city & stop this tax & spend insanity!

I have stated before that a thorough forensic audit of all city departments should be completed so as to know just where we all stand.

I will close by saying that when his honor is finally voted out of the sixth floor, I expect that he’ll be as far away from Fall River as he can get, as even he won’t be able to afford to live here.

Sincerely,
M.R. Napert
Fall River