To the editor:

If I am not mistaken each year about this time my lawgivers announce that we must increase our taxes to cover employee expenses (retirement, salaries, health care). Now it would seem to me that those costs should be relatively well understood and should be addressed long term as an increasing element of our annual budget. It would appear that many municipalities have this under control. Apparently we do not and that really worries me.

Now I may also be mistaken but each year we add some neat things that increase our annual expenses — neat things that were not in the budget and in some cases not even presented as increases to that budget — which of course they are. Those neat things cost but they are rarely if ever identified as the reason for our tax increases and I would argue that they are at least contributors.

If the Journal-World is accurate, the increase has been about 20 percent in four years. Now national data reveals that the average citizen has seen little if any increase in income: If they are not in the top 10 percent, they have to accommodate by making lifestyle adjustments. Why can our city not do that? Just how long can we continue to reward the moment at the expense of the longer term?