Hi Lyn,

Thanks for all of the information!  I especially like the trivia, fun facts!

Also, my son Aiden and I joined the Desert Foothills Library last month and we attended a few of the youth story times...well worth the $30 annual donation!! 

Tracy O'Shaughnessy

 

 

Lyn,

 FAR could not be happier to have placed a perfect dog in Patti and Arthur's home.  They were very patient and our team was tenacious; we love happy endings.  FAR is on track to meet our 600 dog adoption goal in 2013.  Our staff and volunteers are amazing and they have gelled into a cohesive, caring team, focused on saving animals lives that otherwise would have been destroyed.   

I personally would like to thank all the donors that stepped up and donated to the surgical fund for Melanie, the Cattahoula Hound who touched all our hearts with her strength to survive. Overcoming a life threatening venereal decease, pneumonia, congestive heart failure, and than the terrible diagnosis of a diaphragmatic hernia, a congenital hole in her diaphragm that allowed her lower abdominal organs  to travel into her chest cavity. Without your financial help FAR could not have funded the $4500.00 surgery.   She has recovered nicely  and is enjoying life at the beach in San Diego with her new family. 

FAR is holding an open house at our facility on May 30th, from 4-7. Stop by, tour our great rescue, meet our staff, Eddie, Marlene, and Gail and  maybe, just maybe,  you will find the perfect pet for your family! 

 

Holly Bergman

 

 

Nice article, and wondering if the staff 'really' received a 24% raise over the past several years.  That would be unprecedented in our economy for that time period.

Larry Holland

(Lyn's note: Two merit raises are budgeted for the coming fiscal year; the balance of the "raises" are simply a 2% cost of living adjustment.  Staff salaries were frozen for almost 4 years after the economic downturn.  Following that, non management salaries increased 3%, while department head salaries remained static.  Last year, everyone got 3%.  Because long time Town Clerk Betsy Wise is retiring, and Kandace, her new-to-the-job replacement is earning less, the bottom line on the staff salaries is revenue neutral.  Including benefits, the costs did go up, although not to that degree.  But the Town can't control the cost of the benefits.  Health insurance costs more every year, and the staff has paid higher out-of-pocket deductibles for the past several years.  Payroll taxes, workman's comp, long term disability, Medicare, and Social Security have also risen, but all the benefits staff members get are standard items paid for by employers.  Those costs have risen in Herbert's medical practice too.) 

 

Lyn, everyone I talk to thinks the town’s spending proposals for the marketing the town is totally wasteful. I haven’t found one person yet that agrees to the non-operational budget proposals which includes the splash/wading pool… donations by who and who pays for the liability should a child be injured or get sick from bacteria from other children, birds, and animals and the parents sue the city… like a public swimming pool!  Who pays for the overtime on weekends to maintain it running safely and checks it hourly day and night. I doubt there is anything the city can do more locally to improve customer draw for those that will spend versus look. The potential customers discretionary extra money is just not there anymore and I doubt we will see it for many years… banks have tighten home equity loans too. That means few customers and difficult for stores to open. Walking around during the art shows and entering the stores finds very few to no customers… lots of lookers.

Suggest the city council reconsider their unwarranted spending proposals prior to the meeting and do some damage control as what I have heard people say is all negative to the council’s plans. Seems like any extra money could be considered for marketing ideas or promoting another chain retail store to bring in extra revenue. I recall the days we all talked about putting homes/flats on top of the businesses downtown with underground parking… sounded nice, but bad idea with no citizen support and it slowly died.

Bob Brenner

 

 

There are many who share their concerns.  Your thoughtful reassurances were appropriate and kind.  Our towns are big enough to hold many viewpoints.

 Sara

 

 

My praise to the Wittenbergs.   Just because we have the money doesn’t mean we need to spend it. More reserves are a good thing or even a lower sales tax would be a good thing to reduce the excess reserves. Thank you.

Max Wyatt

 

With all the PR and advertising "success stories" we read about, and the continuing efforts and expenses to sell Carefree to others who don't live here, it seems a serious re-think might be advisable.

 

Carefree is continuously being badgered into spending on more signs, more lights, more sidewalks, more ways to turn our town center into an amusement park-like town. Yet tumbling tax revenues tell us this is not working. Before we invest in the likes of splash pools, etc, ought we not take another look at the bigger picture?

 

Approximately how much would one's real estate taxes go up if there were no fairs, festivals, etc, which in effect  remove a resident's ability to use and enjoy our town center, including the Post Office, on those hectic weekends? Or would they go up at all if we decided our town hall, the sundial and the town center gardens were  fine as they are, without need of ever more expensive spending.

 

Spell it out for us. How much would our taxes increase? What would the increase in a million dollar home's taxes be if we did not have this sales tax income? (Which is not to predict an absolute end of the normal tax income we could expect from our merchants if Carefree quit all the strategies to increase it.)

 

As it is now, no  one can make a value judgement of what a peaceful and quiet Carefree might cost us compared to a Carefree that residents begin to struggle to avoid on these ever increasing, busy, unsafe, revenue-seeking weekend traffic and people-jams.

 

Is trying to pump ever more traffic through Carefree really the vision of this town? I think Carefree needs to give this question a serious think. When one leaves our town boundaries, we can travel south through over 30 continuous miles of unending revenue strategies. Why is it we seek to copy that behavior rather than eschew it?

 

Essentially, we keep trying to make Carefree a more successful home for our merchants to thrive, so we can live more expansively off the revenues they create. More and more this resembles a dog chasing its tail, and renders approximately similar results. Which is why I ask a very serious question: Is this the true vision of all Carefree residents?

 

I am omitting my name from this email for a good reason. Once before, in a similar letter, I received serious telephone treats from unnamed callers.

 

(Lyn's note: We have no Carefree property tax. The property tax we pay is from Maricopa County. The total sales tax revenues are down due to the decrease in construction sales tax, but new construction is beginning again, and more is in the pipeline, so the Town should be seeing that increase in 12-18 months. There is no "true vision of all Carefree residents", as you will not find 100% agreement in any group, no matter the size, much less one as large and diverse as the citizens of a town. It is impossible to please everyone all the time.       

 

These people that spoke we agree totally more of this should be said I'm sorry to say we do not get involved but they said it is we could not say it any better but we totally agree

Bonnie K.

 

 

Lyn,

Unfortunately he is not too far off base. Should the Chinese stop funding us we would have a depression that would make the 30's look like a Sunday picnic.

Every citizen is entitled to his view.

Tom S.

 

 

Are the Wittenbergs as wacko as they sound?  Maybe they've been reading the Sonoran News for too long.

Scott P.

(Lyn's note: I believe they attended the meeting because they were upset by an editorial they read in the Sonoran News.)

 

 

This freedom of speech stuff is  . . . interesting.

John Blair

 

 

Hi Lyn,

Wow!  Nothing like a Right Wing Rant to make you realize how uninformed the Wittenbergs are as how Carefree's budget works.   I guess they wanted to use Carefree's Call to the Public to espouse their political beliefs.  This is not the place to invoke the so called financial and social demise of the United States, along with the specter of Marshall Law with "Chaos in the streets of Carefree".  Truly a case of Chutzpah, using the Garden Projects as a sounding board for their attack on the current administration in Washington. The town of Carefree is carefree and not a platform for ones political beliefs.  Perhaps they should contact Don and Linda at the Sonoran News and tell their tale of woe. Together they may save Carefree and our country from whatever they are talking about. I guess they still believe the Sun revolves around the Flat Earth and the Black Helicopters flown by Gay and Lesbian ATF Agents are going to take everyone's guns, plus Nixon was right.

Herbie N.

PS.  I loved your measured response to Wittenbergs.  After you explained how budgets work, their passionate ignorance was well noted.

Herbie N.

 

 

 

Foil covered Tri Corn Hats anyone??  I like your response.

Laurie P. 

 

 

Lyn, I would love to dispute these crazies but it's hard to reason with such nonsense.  For one, the Constitution of the United States doesn't say a lot of things but it does say we have a President, Congress and Supreme Court.  I ask this, why would we need the three branches of government if we only did exactly what is in the Constitution  For instance, we have speeding laws but that isn't in the Constitution either.  You see, their arguments make no sense, except to Fox New watchers.

Further, if you do believe we must have laws then, The Federal Reserve Act Section 11. says:

 Powers of the Board of Governors…

Issue and Retirement of Federal Reserve Notes

(d) To supervise and regulate through the Secretary of the Treasury the issue and retirement of Federal reserve notes, except for the cancellation and destruction, and accounting with respect to such cancellation and destruction, of notes unfit for circulation, and to prescribe rules and regulations under which such notes may be delivered by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Federal reserve agents applying therefore.

[12 USC 248(d). As amended by acts of May 20, 1966 (80 Stat. 161) and Sept. 23, 1994 (108 Stat. 2293). For provisions governing the issue of Federal Reserve notes, see section 16.]

Once again, the reason for the branches of government is to govern, pass, pay for and enforce LAWS.  I would ask these people, "Where do you get your unbiased and factual information if not from the mainstream media"?   Perhaps they've never heard of www.factcheck.org. ; Hopefully they will enlighten themselves before issuing disparaging remarks about our great town or country. 

As for the debt of the United State please note the following information from the Congressional Budget Office:

If the current laws that govern federal taxes and spending do not change, the budget deficit will shrink this year to $642 billion, CBO estimates, the smallest shortfall since 2008. Relative to the size of the economy, the deficit this year—at 4.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—will be less than half as large as the shortfall in 2009, which was 10.1 percent of GDP.

Factcheck.org, Factcheck.org, Factcheck.org….need I say more?

Vince Fratarcangeli