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I know this is piling on but we now have hard numbers on the just passed 2012 Montgomery County budget. If you recall, the county supervisors had this to say in terms of the city budget:

In addition, it is an affront to every constituent in the City who approved a 3% tax cap

[sni[]

It is not our intent to question your administrative duties within the Cityof Amsterdam, but we will not apologize for the ill affects this decision would have on our constituencies.

By the standard set and defined by the very same supervisors, any tax hike above 3% is an affront to city tax payers. Not a slight, not a faux pas — an affront. They said so.

So what do you call this:

FONDA – The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to adopt a 2012 budget of $90 million that carries a tax increase of nearly 4 percent but shrinks the county’s fund balance.

Some officials warned the low fund balance could result in massive cuts or a big tax increase in 2013.

[snip]

County Treasurer Shawn Bowerman said the tax increase of 3.92 percent does not violate the state-imposed 2 percent tax cap because several calculations used to establish the tax levy are not part of the tax-cap formula.

I actually don’t feel ‘affronted’ by the supervisors; I feel something else with a prominent ‘f’ sound in the word. And I expect that the same f-word will figure prominently when the supervisors turn to sharing services and consolidation when faced with the dire budget of next year. But to the supervisors, passing a tax hike above 3% to city tax payers is not an affront at all, it is a favor.

I just wish the supervisors didn’t favor me by hiking my favoring taxes more than the 2% tax cap suggesting , next year, we will be even more favored. I’m so totally favored to live here when tax policy and budgets result from a total clusterfavor.

Faaaaavor me.

 

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