Steady As She Goes In Lisbon As The Corruption Continues

PURE WASTE OF TIME

At Tuesday’s night Town Council meeting there were three items I found to be important.  The first was a super presentation by Scott Benson regarding the proposal for Kelly Park.  This proposal was to make this a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District.  This program will hopefully draw businesses to Lisbon.  I believe this is an excellent investment for the town, however, within the Credit Enhancement Agreement (CEA) the town would return 60% of the Increase Asset Value (IAV) to the businesses.  These are our tax dollars and in this economy I believe this is too much.  I understand 60% would draw more opportunity to fill the park but I am not sure the taxpayers can afford it.  Also, there are no provisions in the CEA to ensure the tax dollars returned to the business are being utilized to enhance the business instead of going into someone’s pocket.  There needs to be a provision to protect our tax dollars.

Second, was the first reading of the Home Occupation Ordinance.  This proposed ordinance was created to redefine Home Occupation and to circumvent the Comprehensive Plan.  The Planning Board inserted special provisions for auto body shops, auto repair facilities and repair facilities for recreation vehicles.  It is a feeble attempt to justify the operation of two garages on Route 9.  These garages do not conform to our ordinances or the Comprehensive Plan and are NOT currently paying Personal Property Tax.   

The Code Enforcement Officer (CEO) notified these garages of these violations and the owners, our neighbors, totally ignored these letters.  The town management, instead of supporting our CEO, chose to allow these garages to operate illegally.  This created an illegal act and the town had to find a way to save face.  As I have said many times before; the Good Old Boys network has a choke hold on this town.  Our town council voted 7-0 to approve the first reading.  

Third, was the selection of the Finance Committee.  Norma Wells and Eugene Smith were selected for three years; Miriam Morgan-Alexander and Chris Rugullies were selected for two years and Don Fellows was selected for one year.  Mrs. Wells and Mr. Smith were previous councilors so they already know very well how to inflate and conceal funds in our budget.  Remember last year when our town council raised our taxes and then turned around and declared over a million dollars carried forward.  I wonder why the town manager and Finance Director did not know we had this overage and why wasn’t it applied to the budget?  This would have eliminated the need to raise taxes.  

I cannot wait to see what they have in store for the taxpayers this year.  Since the town manager has been here the town’s Undesignated Fund has gone from over three million dollars to just over one million.  This speaks volumes for managing our budget!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Larry Fillmore

Concern Citizen