Mayor Tauer kicked off Aurora's budget workshop by exhorting council memebers that it is not your job, it is not staffs job, it not Ron's job it is not even Brad's job to keep swimming pools open. It is, their job to find a way,(those citizens in the neighborhood that are concerned with keeping the pools open) all we can do is support, encourage and advise them how to do it.
It appears City Council has extended this approach to Aurora's libraries. City Council gave tentative approval for the 2010 budget, a budget that will cut 2.77 million dollars from the library budget. This cut will close four libraries, reduce hours at the three remaining libraries and reduce library staff by thirty-five employees.
City Council has put a citizen petition for a library GID on the ballot. The library GID, if passed, will provide full library services. It seems City Council had Identified you, the tax payer, as the they, that is responsible to keep libraries open.
Mayor Tauer and Aurora's city council has given Aurora's voters diabolical choices. 1. Vote against the library GID and have library services slashed. 2. Vote for the library GID and replace a 6.6 million dollar library budget with a property tax increase that will generate a library budget of 12.5 million dollars. The new library budget of 12.5 million dollars will be in 2009 dollars and subject to automatic property tax increases to maintain todays value.
Did Mayor Tauer and city council create these choices because no one was willing to lead? Was the Mayor and city council afraid to address public policy issues? (mandated staffing, a capital impact fee that subsidizes developers, is Aurora to remain a full service city, and sales tax as Aurora's primary revenue) There is no good reason for our current political "leaders" to present this"choice" that will do nothing for Aurora's structural budget deficiency.
If you agree with Mayor Tauer that it is not council's job to keep swimming pools open or libraries open, vote to extend term limits. If on the other hand you believe, the process, the purpose and the proposal Mayor Tauer and city council have used to present the library GID are all valid reasons to reject their request to extend term limits, VOTE NO on 2A.