My name is Dave Doherty, I am a local small business owner, and I have been a Folsom resident for over a quarter century. I have also served as a founding director of a publicly traded company. In both organizations many hard decisions had to be made for the survival of the organizations. They were not easy or popular, but hard decisions had to happen, and the end results were extremely positive.
I have seen a lot of decisions made by Folsom city leadership and elected officials over the decades and have questioned some of the financial decisions that the city leadership has taken. This has inspired me to volunteer as chair for the “No on Measure G” committee opposed to the passage of the permanent sales tax increase, Measure G on the November ballot.
Many financial decisions by our elected officials and city management made no business sense to me. I brought these to their attention at the time and my suggestions were not considered or implemented. One thing I would like to point out is that the numbers are a moving target. In discussing the budget at the city council meeting in October we were projecting a $5,000.000.00 deficit in 5 years and with the expectation to be in the red last year – yet, we had a surplus last year due to higher than anticipated sales tax revenue. Now the projections are changing with the projected and approved 2024-2025 budget.
The delayed maintenance according to the City went from a total of $20,000,000.00 total to $20,000,000.00 annually in a 3-month period. Our opponents on this measure are using an alarmist “sky is falling” approach. According to them, life as we know it in Folsom will end. They say it has been a long time coming, but why did they not fix it when they were in leadership positions in the city? They just kept spending. Let’s get our fiscal house in order, look at where technology may assist in processes for efficiency and cost saving, and apply an organizational change management approach to see how to make the city run leaner and better, long before we throw $29,000,000.00 annually at the problem as Measure G is estimated to bring in $29 million annually.
Join us skeptical of the forever sales tax increase or learn more at NoFolsomTax.Com
The above commentary was authored by local resident Dave Doherty and submitted to Folsom Times. The views and opinions expressed in community commentary submissions are that of the authors and do not reflect the views and opinions of Folsom Times, its management, staff, stakeholders or advertisers.
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