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Prison time in WB shooting incident

In virus era, bubbles provide game-changing lessons learned

In the days since I proposed my balanced budget for 2021, I have talked with many residents about their concerns, their anxieties and their hopes and aspirations for the city next year and beyond.
				A budget proposal is more than a catalogue of debits and credits or revenue and expense projections. Budgets are expressions of community values. Where and how we spend our money reflects upon not just my administration, but our entire community. What does Wilkes-Barre stand for? Which employees do we recognize as essential? What services must be preserved not eliminated? These are the questions that we answered with the 2021 budget proposal.
				We did not pad the budget with frivolous luxury items. We did not exaggerate the need to raise revenue and close a budget deficit exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. We did not inflate our proposed revenue increases so we could later whittle it down to a more politically palatable fee increase. We presented a fiscally responsible and prudent budget that recognizes the unavoidable reality that we need more revenue to maintain city services.
				Before presenting our budget to City Council last week, I was presented with three options: 1) raise property taxes; 2) cut jobs; or 3) raise usage fees. Raising property taxes yet again could devastate the city. It would penalize certain neighborhoods, and it could encourage people to finally put up a &ldquo;For Sale&rdquo; sign in the yard.
				Likewise, cutting jobs would mean cutting services. None of the city&rsquo;s departments have a &ldquo;deep bench&rdquo; anymore. Long gone are the days where the city had the luxury to employ an assistant to the assistant of the director of Parks and Recreation. We don&rsquo;t even have a Parks and Recreation Department anymore.
				Nevertheless, the myth still persists that the city&rsquo;s payroll is bloated with unnecessary patronage jobs and that we could save millions of dollars by terminating these people once and for all. Nothing could be further from the truth. City Hall is a bare bones operation. Police officers spend entire shifts bouncing from call to call while paramedics rush up and down and across the city saving lives and ferrying people to emergency rooms. Firefighters don&rsquo;t spend their shifts sleeping on cots and merely scrubbing engines and trucks. They&rsquo;re battling fires, pulling people from the Susquehanna River, inspecting gas leaks and supporting paramedics on many of their medical emergency runs. DPW workers brave the heat, the cold, and the coronavirus to pick-up yard waste, recycling and garbage. Make no mistake, if we cut jobs, we will have to cut services.
				Left to choose between these drastic options, raising usages fees on sewer and recycling is the wisest course of action. First, we are able to close a multi-million dollar budget deficit with only a modest increase (totaling approximately $1 per week per service). Second, the increase is shared by all residents equally. We&rsquo;re all in this together and we must continue to fund and maintain city services.
				One of the great assets of the city is all of the services that we provide. Other communities might have lower taxes and fees but they do not provide curbside garbage and recycling pickup. These communities rely upon volunteers and/or part-timers to staff their fire and police departments. That&rsquo;s not the Wilkes-Barre that I grew up in, and it is not the Wilkes-Barre that I want to preserve for my grandchildren. I know I am not the only one who feels that way.
				I know that it is not easy to pay more. I know that many of you live on fixed incomes. I know that all of you work hard for your money. Rest assured, we do not propose fee increases because we can but because we must. We must maintain the workforce because we must maintain city services. We must balance the budget with firm revenue sources and realistic projections. We must shoulder this burden together as our city has always done and if we do so, I promise you that better days lie ahead.

George Brown: Raising fees in WB budget was a necessity