Parks tax needs a better plan
A public hearing is being held today at 6 p.m. about the City of Pittsburgh Parks Trust Fund and the new tax. I will be speaking at the hearing as to why I still oppose this tax and here is what I plan to say.
I live in Observatory Hill. Back on Oct. 23, I spoke to the members of City Council about my opposition to the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy tax referendum. I expressed my concerns that there are too many city residents struggling to pay their current bills and that this tax increase could cause a financial disaster for some residents.
I am still against the Parks Trust Fund because of how quickly this referendum was put on the ballot and not enough residents understood that their real estate taxes would be increasing. Yet, here we are once again, another meeting being scheduled and how were the city residents made aware of this meeting?
I request that City Council not pass this legislation until there is an exact plan as to how the fund will be overseen and managed and, most of all, how these dollars will be distributed.
Let me ask this question: If someone you didn’t know said, “Give me your paycheck and I will put it into an account and pay some of your bills for you,” would you allow this to happen? Well, that is where our millions of dollars of taxpayer money is going — into an account and no one knows how it will be controlled or how it will be spent. STACEY BRANCH
Observatory Hill wildlife: Property values diminish because deer eat plants, deer cause accidents (people cause accidents, not deer!), deer carry disease — the usual excuses for killing.
The issue of encroaching residential and commercial development was not addressed. The question of why so many people move closer to nature when they only want to trash and destroy it was not raised. The archers will take specific aim at does, many of them mothers of 3-month-old fawns. What a manly feat; it is a hateful and despicable act! I am appealing to any reader possessed of my own empathy with all creatures great and small to do anything in their power to stop the slaughter.
THOMAS ERNST Ross