Special Treat For Mayor Marvel-Less Tom McMahon

June 27, 2007 by Matt Heckman.

Andy one of our regular readers posted this on the Vince McMahon topic.  I was so well written I felt it deserves its own posting.  Thanks Andy.

“The fact is when Tom McMahon took office we had a 7 million dollar deficit. Today we have a 7.5 million dollar surplus.”

Bullshit. To begin with, deficits are projections, estimates, best guesses… if they are honest!

This year, 2007, we [City of Reading] are spending between $2.3 million to $3.5 million MORE than we are bringing in from real estate property, real estate transfer, business, personal income, and other minor taxes. It is a PROJECTION, but it is a DEFICIT, not a $7.5 surplus as you ignorantly say or are intentionally lying.

McMahon’s lie about this ficticious 7 million dollar surplus is based on receiving the Lake Antietam proceeds from the county, but that is locked up in court pending eminate domain proceedings, which could take years to realize and the amount is not even known yet. You can throw out that figure the mayor and county commissioners originally agreed to, because eminate domain forces the county to pay the ACTUAL VALUE of the property to the City of Reading. That could be between $12 million and $15 million by the time the courts finish, but that money is only a one time infusion, it does nothing to fix the structural deficit the city is suffering under. It is caused by spending millions more than you bring in in taxes and without rebuilding our retail and manufacturing base, or the federal government paying the costs of all these thousands of illegal aliens in Reading, we can’t fix that.

Tom McMahon has merely played financial gymnastics, sold it to the public, and fools like you buy these parlor tricks up!

The City of Reading’s bond rating will not allow another bond swap, so McMahon’s magic is all used up. He is obviously banking on the Lake Antietam money bailing him out, which sucks because that would be such a terrible legacy to leave the children of Reading. This LOSER mayor, McMahon, sold off our assets to balance his budget. All the money from Lake Antietam should be placed in a trust, with the proceeds [interest/dividends] of the principle used to enhance recreational facilities throughout the city for the citizens of Reading, forever preserving that principle. This would be just too, because we sold off a huge recreational area, Lake Antietam, to the county to acquire these funds. They must not be WASTED in the general fund to produce this ficticious $7.5 million surplus the mayor and his sock puppets keep spewing.

Oh, just to correct your continuing ignorance on city management… the mayor does NOT manage the city. Here is a link to the Reading City Charter.

http://www.readingpa.gov/documents/charter.pdf

Read it.
Learn it.
Then stop LYING about the mayor doing things he is not!

Any two bit candidate running against McMahon could hire Leon Churchill [Managing Director] and the city would be managed the SAME as it is now. In fact, the system is designed to keep all the professionals in place when we elect new leaders, though the mayor can choose to replace people.

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