WHY MAKE THE TAXPAYERS SUFFER ANYMORE?

Now that we have elected the same individuals to the Town Council, we can expect the same results from them.  This is to say that the new Council will continue to spend our TAX DOLLARS instead of making any attempt to reduce the operating cost of the town which in turn would reduce the taxes on its residents.

 

The people have presented two options that would reduce the operating cost by nearly $300,000.00 yearly and both have been ignored by the Town Council.  They are:

 

           (1)  Closing the Lisbon Communication Center would save the taxpayers approximately $200,000.00 every year.

(2) Eliminating Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) every year would save approximately $100,000.00 every year.

 

The Lisbon Communication Center currently performs the dispatching of Police, Fire, and Medical for the town of Lisbon.  It use to perform dispatching for Sabattus and Durham but they determined it was not cost effective and decided to go to the Androscoggin County Dispatch.  Utilizing Androscoggin County Dispatch for these services is much more efficient because it eliminates an additional step in the process.

 

The Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) was established by the Federal Government to offset a recession but Lisbon has NOT been in a recession for many years.   However, the Town Manager uses COLA to cover-up wage increases for every employee of the town.  For the past three years, the taxpayers have paid the Town Manager between $1,200.00 and $1,800.00 every year.  This is outrageous to force the taxpayers to pay this.

 

By using COLA to cover-up wage increases, bad employees are rewarded the same as outstanding employees and to me this is not fair.  Wage increase should be awarded ONLY to employees that are exceeding normal standards.  I personally do not like paying for employees who are not doing their jobs up to the normal level required; maybe you do. 

 

In both cases, the Town Council has rejected the opportunity to save residents their hard earned money.  To me, this is very disgraceful and not what these individuals were elected to do.  I believe it is their job to, at least try, to reduce spending so we can reduce our taxes.  Lisbon is currently 2^nd in the County for highest taxes; Lewiston is number one.  I have no doubt that if these Councilors do not put a stop to spending Lisbon will pass Lewiston.  This is NOT what I am looking forward too.

 

Call your Councilors and demand that they start reducing our spending immediately.

 

Larry Fillmore