We’re Glad Jim Ireton Isn’t a Math Teacher
The newly elected Salisbury city council is on its way to adopting a budget for FY 2014. Included is a tax rate hike of nearly 8% coupled with a DROP in water and sewer rates. One thing that appears to be missing is mayor Jim Ireton’s promised “storm water authority”, now laughingly referred to across the country as the “Rain Tax”.
Newly minted council president Jake Day is backpedaling on his campaign commitment not to support a tax hike. He now claims that he won’t support a tax hike above constant yield. We’ll give him that one (on style) since the net affect of the rate increase should be revenue neutral. We wonder if the people who stayed home at the last election will be as forgiving since a sizable number of them will see their taxes rise?
The section of Ireton’s proposed budget that disturbs us most is a cut in the water and sewer rates. WHAT? A self-identified conservative is against a cut in government fees (water and sewer fees are not really a tax)? Sorry to disappoint, but … YES!
Here’s the problem. Salisbury is showing a sizable surplus in its Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund. HOWEVER, Salisbury is having to PAY TWICE for its failed waste water treatment plant (WWTP). By cutting rates now, the city will have to raise them that much more in the future. The problem is simple. Ireton hopes to justify future general fund tax hikes because he’s decreased the water and sewer rates. Given that Ireton makes Barack Obama look like a Reaganite, he just can’t sit idly by and watch tens of millions sit unspent, even if it is in Salisbury’s best interest. That money needs to be SPENT! Sadly for Ireton, he can’t spend water and sewer money for every fly by night leftist scheme that comes down the pike, even if he thinks that Jake Day will rubber stamp Ireton’s every whim. (The jury is still out on Day, we all know that Laura Mitchell and Shanie Shields will rubber stamp all sorts of craziness.)
SALISBURY, MD – Another questionable real estate deal is catching the eyes of Wicomico County taxpayers. Today the Wicomico County Council is scheduled to vote on the 
SALISBURY, MD – As Wicomico County homeowners again face an increase in their property tax rates, County Executive Rick Pollitt held a “public hearing” on his soon-to-be-released FY 2014 county budget. It should be noted that no real budget detail was provided for citizens to comment on.
When I’m cruising through Delaware (or northern Worcester or Wicomico counties) I often bump my dial over one tick from 
The state of Maryland has just passed a $37 billion budget, chock full of the expected tax hikes and wasteful spending. Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt will unveil his proposed budget on Thursday during his annual dog and pony show at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center. We can expect a proposed $0.07 rate hike. In a lead up to this, Wicomico School’s superintendent 
Congressman Harris made a moving argument regarding the consequences of attempts to strip citizens of their guns:
Why are YOUR tax dollars – and that’s what funds the Tri-County Council – being used to hold meetings at a brew pub when you have already paid for perfectly good meeting space?
Salisbury mayor Jim Ireton LOVES to spend other people’s money. OK, he’s a liberal. Actually, Jim’s politics are somewhere to the left of Karl Marx. Ireton has seldom seen a government program he didn’t love. If Ireton is re-elected, AND if Jake Day is elected to the city council, Jim has a plan to spend some MORE of YOUR hard earned money. It involves re-developing downtown.
In part one of a multi-part series on 
For years we, along with many others, have been a severe critic of Salisbury’s Daily Times. While the paper appears to provide somewhat balanced coverage of other local news, their coverage of Salisbury politics, city government, and the Wicomico Board of Education (BOE) has been biased almost beyound measure. To add insult to injury, the DT has refused to disclose multiple relationships with public officials (i.e. the fact that their former Executive Editor is married to the communications director of our former Congressman or that their former Managing Editor is married to the public information officer of the Wicomico BOE).
Two weeks ago the council refused to place the grant acceptance on the agenda. Tonight they will vote on whether to accept $1.4 million to hire additional fire fighters. Again, in most places this would be a no-brainer and on the consent agenda. The fire department says it can use the additional fire fighters. The federal government will pick up the cost for two years. What’s the problem?
SALISBURY, MD – Yesterday it was announced that Maryland governor 
You often hear (or read) in the media that the First Amendment is inviolate. Yet, media coverage of our most basic freedoms begs a question or two:
Guess who was in the audience adding her support? Ms. McLain. Guess who was part of the “Revitalization Committee” that added their collective names to Ireton’s plan? Ms. McLain. Guess which TV station dispatched a reporter to the home of council president Terry Cohen (frightening her children to the point that her daughter was brought to tears)? WMDT (of which McLain is the GM). Guess whose reporter sheepishly admitted that she was ordered to attempt an ambush of Cohen at her home? McLain (WMDT reporter Jemie Lee). Guess which outlet presented a one sided view of Ireton’s dog and pony show without even disclosing that McLain was part of the group promoting Ireton’s plan? WMDT.
SALISBURY, MD – The Salisbury City Council is expected to vote tonight on the city’s plan to rearrange the intersection of S. Division Street, Bateman Street and Onley Road. Will they?
SALISBURY, MD – 2010 Wicomico County Executive candidate Joe Ollinger has proposed saving Wicomico, and Maryland, taxpayers approximately $11 million in the construction of a new James M. Bennett Middle School. 
