Mayor elect Ness showed his true colors.

Mayor elect Don Ness ran his campaign on bringing the community together. He also said that he will bring responsible spending back to city hall. Mayor elect Ness showed his true colors at the council meeting Monday night.



He showed that all of his promises were just that. He could care less about the average Duluthain. He is just going to spend your money and tax you out of your house. That was made way to clear on Monday night. The mayor elect did nothing but vote to raise our taxes and increase utility rates. The taxes will not benefit us at all either. They raised storm water run off by 17% and sewer rates went up 11%. Never gave a reason to why he voted the way he did. Like it or not that is what you get.

I wonder if this silent but deadly treatment is what he will take into the Mayor's office. If this is the type of Mayor he will be then we are in for a long four years. We may want to hang on to our wallets. The type of mayor that is needed now is one that can and is willing to work with a limited budget. To this point it is very clear that Mr. Ness is not willing to do this.

What is clear is that he wants to raise taxes so the city has money to fund unneeded things. These projects may indeed be good, however when you don't have the money you need to take a look at if they are needed.

He showed this again on Monday night with two other votes. One of the two votes was to not override the Mayors veto of the housing investment fund. Whether the fund is a good thing or not is debatable. I think it is in theory but I have some issues with it. Mr. Ness did not vote in favor or over ridding the veto because he thinks the project is a good one. It also helps many people out.

This is true however when we are in a budget crisis we need to focus on the core issues. I hate to say it but this is far from a core issue. The fact of the matter is our streets and sewers are falling a part. The police along with other emergency services are in need of man power and equipment.

The second vote was on if we should conduct yet another feasibility study for a high speed train to connect Duluth with the Cities. The study only cost us tax payers a small amount of $40,000 dollars.

Keep in mind we have already had three studies done. All of them said the project would not be a good one for Duluth to get involved in. I guess it is a classic case of "if you don't succeed; try, try again". This time we can all rest assured that the study will have the "right" results. The study will be conducted by the railroad authorities from many counties.

Mr. Ness said this was a critical vote and we need to support it because we have in the past. It is the wave of the future he said. Calling for a huge come back for trains.

Simple fact of the matter is this project will just be yet another fish tank . I mean G.L.A. ( Great Lakes Aquarium). The numbers will fall well short of the predictions and we will do nothing but subsidise the train.