I believe the headline (“City tax revenues up, expenses down in 2016”) in last week’s paper was mistakenly misleading.
While the article itself clarified the “budgeted” expenses in 2016 were lower than anticipated, I found Councilwoman’s Ralph quote mistakenly misleading as well. It’s really easy to spend less than you budget if your expense budget is overly conservative. This doesn’t mean the city is spending less money, it just means they’re not spending as much as they planned.
There is no mention in the article how the city’s expenses in 2016 compared city’s expenses in 2015. I think a reasonable conclusion from the headline and Ms. Ralph’s quote is the city is spending less this year than last year.
If true, this would be great news. In 2015 the city’s expenses increased $17,000,000 compared to 2014 (which, if I’m correct, is about a 10 percent increase).
Hopefully, the Kent Reporter will follow up and compare 2016 expenses to 2015 to more accurately reflect the front page headline from last week.
– Russell L. Hanscom
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