Republican Councilman James Hennessy of Long Beach is chuckling about the city budget scheduled for release today by the Democratic leadership.
It calls for no property tax increases - not for the fiscal year that begins July 1, and not for the three years after that.
Hennessy was the leader of the City Council in 2004 and 2005 and passed two budgets with no tax increases.
The Democrats, in the minority at the time, protested that the Republicans had increased fees - a hidden tax.
So the Democrats circulated anti-Republican fliers reading: "Oh No! Another Zero Percent Tax."
Bill Murphy
But the Democrats won control in 2006. When they couldn't agree on a budget, the fiscal plan crafted by their hand-picked city manager, John Laffey, went into effect.
It hiked property taxes 25 percent, raising $6 million, in the current fiscal year, their first budget.
Now, they're back to zero.
Comments (1)
It turns out that the story about the "gangster" teens that were tried in L.B. Adult court by Dist Atty Andrea Bouas, who continusly refered to the kids as "Crips" in her tirades to the Judge, and accused them of ramming a witnesses car in retaliation for her testimony was actually a figment of Police Cmdr Jeffry Johnson's imagination,(see L.A. Times 8/17/07) this should come as no surprise to Long Beach citzens who have seeen our "Finest" pull over hispanic or black kids for traffic stops and have them sitting on the curb with 5-6 police cars in attendence as they search through thier car.But hey our cops arn't prujudice. Just ask Cmdr Johnson