Mayor Miro WeinbergerBurlington's new Mayor wants to raise taxes to offset financial woes left by the Burlington Telecom scandal.
In a news conference Monday afternoon, Weinberger proposed three financial ballot items to go to the voters in November. One is a 15-year, nine million dollar fiscal stability bond, in order to improve liquidity, the city's credit rating, and ensure stable interest rates. The city has been relying on short term borrowing to shore up a 17-million dollar hole left by the former administration's unapproved fund transfer to Burlington Telecom.
"This action is roughly the municipal equivalent of a household refinancing large amounts of credit card debt into a stable long-term mortgage," Weinberger said.
If approved by the city council and voters, he says the measure would cost owners of a 250-thousand dollar home an additional 60 dollars a year.
Weinberger also hopes to get approval for a permanent half-cent tax hike in the tax rate to improve and maintain the bike path. He says the city can't afford the nearly 12-million dollar plan to repair the path in full, but says some of the needed work can begin through the use of a public financing tool.
