It might have made the newspaper by the time this letter is published, but I've waited a week and nothing was mentioned that your City Council, by a 4-2 vote, placed a 3 mill levy on your property on May 27, without even giving it the three required readings, much like the way they slid the Marting's purchase through and sent you the bill.
Perhaps they didn't want you to know, because they are planning a larger tax increase to come while we have the second-highest unemployment rate and foreclosures are skyrocketing.
They refer to it as the City Center, Justice Center, but I refer to it as the Kalbmahall, because Mayor Kalb is heck bent on moving into a plush office building even though voters turned it down by a 2-1 margin.
Just as your vote meant nothing to them, neither does your protest to increased taxes -] whether it's a property tax increases or an income tax increases.
Yet they give city property away for well below appraised value, and even for $1, but they look at us like the oil companies do, either pay what we demand or do without.
But unlike oil companies, we as voters can do something when we're being taken to the cleaners and that is vote, but then again, they are ignoring our last vote as if it never happened.
The county is in a financial crisis as well as the city. Maybe instead of building and maintaining three city complexes, and double-taxing by both parties, maybe it's time to go to a consolidated city-county government, which is a city and county that have been merged into one jurisdiction.
As such, it is simultaneously a city, which is a municipal corporation and a countywide government under one budget and elected officials, like the commissioners.
The constant water, sewage and garbage rate increases, along with increasing property taxes, only will help detour people from Portsmouth and increase unemployment.
If we had council members who worked as hard to bring employment to this city as they do on the Marting's renovation, we wouldn't have enough housing for all the people to live in this town. As I've attended many recent council meetings, I never have heard them mention working toward locating or enticing employers to Portsmouth.
But of course, this would take extra effort and time, but they only have to say "I" to attach another tax on your property to pay for all their mistakes or the mayor's mismanagement.
If you think what I'm saying is ridiculous, then I encourage you to attend a City Council meeting. It's better than attending a performance at the Portsmouth Little Theater and it's free, or is it?
Harald Daub
Portsmouth
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