Comments on: City Of Burien Holding Public Hearing On Property Tax Increase On Monday, Nov. 9th

By: Pauline

Pauline — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:27:08 +0000

I have observed over the years that the City runs a very lean ship. Do you realize it has less than 60 staff to serve a population of more than 30,000 — soon to be 45,000 or so? The entire reason it was able to build Town Square was that it scrimped and saved right from the beginning rather than go into debt. I suspect that what little waste there is to cut out is not going to make a huge difference in the budget and I’ll wager that cutting staff means cutting services — but if that’s what the people want…the next thing you all will be complaining about is that the wrong services were cut. How easy it is for us all to complain without knowing the full story — isn’t that the American way now?

By: John

John — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:40:37 +0000

I’d like to say more but anything at this point would be repeating what Adelle and Merle said already. I totally agree. I do not want to bail the city out when they are not doing what they need to, to save money, etc. I too have cut my expenditures in half and done with out for over a year or so. Has Burien? Vote no for taxation just to bail out mismanagement..

By: tripC

tripC — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:21:23 +0000

oops hear… so much for proofreading

By: tripC

tripC — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:18:48 +0000

I wonder, on this election eve, if we will here any thoughts from the candidates (contested or not) on this subject…. Interesting this doesn’t come out until the night before the elections. How many of you have already sent in your ballot?

By: merle

merle — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:03:00 +0000

U.S. corporations have been forced, due to lack of revenue, to downsize, cut costs, reduce staff, and run “lean and mean”. Many of us have had to make sacrifices in our personal lives. Why isn’t the city of Burien being asked to live within it’s means? Now they want us to cough up money for sidewalks, more property taxes, and whatever other whims they may have. At the end of the day, the city IS a business. Maybe they shouldn’t have been so quick to give up revenue from tax credits (Town Square) and force businesses out that were paying taxes. They have made some very poor decisions, and expecting the taxpayers of Burien to “bail” them out every time they screw up is not the solution.

By: Adelle Comfort

Adelle Comfort — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:48:50 +0000

Greg, the first thing the City should do is look at waste, not to its already overtaxed citizens! The waste is there! Explain why we currently pay more per assessed value to live in Burien than Bill Gates pays to live in Medina or any citizen in greater Bellevue pays to live there ? Let’s find out if the City of Burien got the millions it expected from the City of Seattle for all the road improvements. I found a way to personally save money when the world ‘broke’ and the City of Burien can do the same thing in its house! Clean up, clean out, switch vendors, reduce staff, cut corners everywhere just like every household has to. Enough is enoug!.

By: Greg Fox

Greg Fox — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:32:22 +0000

There is no forecast for the economy to brighten in 2010. While tax revenues to the city will not increase the cost of running the city still continues to rise (insurance costs more, the cost of using equipment rises, etc…). The money has to come from somewhere or Burien will end up like Des Moines and have to cut all services. This includes police and parks and rec and fire.
In order to keep from making these cuts, the first thing the city has to do is ask the citizens for more money (read that as higher taxes). If the citizens agree then all is right with the world. If not, then look south to your neighbor and see the pickle it has gotten itself into. Is that what you want?