Another example of Ken Short's dishonesty...

In my "public comment" exchange with our esteem Mayor last evening, Ken Short referenced my 2005 Take Five pledge and declared I did not lived up to it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here is the original wording of my Take Five pledge:

"I will only vote in favor of a municipal budget that complies with the local tax rate provisions specified in TAKE FIVE, calling for a five percent municipal tax cut in 2006 and caps related to the annual Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) in the years going forward. "

So now let's examine what actually happened:

1. In 2006, despite my best efforts to work with Republicans, they introduced and adopted a budget containing a 4.07% municipal tax increase. In honoring my Take Five pledge, the record clearly shows I voted "NO" on both the introduction (Resolution R-66-06) and adoption (Resolution R-82-06) of this budget.
   
2. In 2007, the SSA COLA was 3.3%. The 2007 municipal budget contained a tax increase of 3.2%. I voted "YES" for this budget as it clearly met my stated pledge.
   
3. In 2008, the SSA COLA was 2.3%. The 2008 municipal budget contained a tax increase of 2.3%. I voted "YES" for this budget as it clearly met my stated pledge.

So for Mayor Ken Short to now publicly claim I did not keep my pledge is simply dishonest, disingenuous and unfortunately, what I have come to expect of him.

In contrast, last year I received an email from Eric Frenchman who had been informed by a GOP operative that I had broken my pledge. Eric stated that while he had no plans of voting for me, he wanted to know if I had been a man of my word. I respected Eric for his honest inquiry and responded with the information above. He wrote back acknowledging my keeping of my word and wished me luck.

To this day, despite my teasing Eric for having never voted in a school election prior to running for a seat on the BOE, I have the greatest respect for him, even though we have our partisan differences. By the way, he still owes me lunch!