City keeps taking from Valley residents

In response to Max Johnston’s Vocal Point of June 13, Spokane County governed the area for much less. The city manager is paid $150,000 annually plus benefits. He lives near Vancouver and commutes to his job, working three-four days a week. Are we paying air fare and housing? The city hires consultants (i.e., $700,000 for city planning, $50,000 plus for sheriff). The list goes on. He runs a business from here doing consulting for others. Try to find a job like that. How much time does he spend on running the city? How much time does he spend with his business clients? We are subsidizing his business. His business Web site (http://kenbrio.com/contact.aspx) gives Spokane as his contact address. Perhaps he could do some consulting for Spokane Valley and save some money for us, at the salary he is getting. This is what you call milking the cow.

If the city has a balanced budget as Max Johnston stated, why starting Jan. 1, 2009, do I have a $75 per year tax on our cell phones? Why are they talking about taxing garbage? What about electricity, water and car tab fee? We now owe the Sheriff’s Department $2 million, the city is hiring a forensic accountant to review this bill. How much will this cost? Maybe they’ll do another $50,000 study. Much of the money goes out of our area, to out-of-state consultants. The county doesn’t look so bad now. Retired people on fixed incomes don’t seem to count. The city officials assume that the citizens of Spokane Valley have deep pockets.

Joe Estinson

Spokane Valley