Christy Cunningham

To the editor,

Perhaps the greatest irony in this year's city council campaign is having Ward 1 Councilor Judy Krahulec and Ward 6 Councilor Armand Bolduc endorsing the tax cap initiative "because you can't trust council to hold down the budget."

For those who have been following the city's politics for the past couple of years just recall that both Krahulec and Bolduc voted in favor of annual budget increases of ten percent. Even when they walked out of the council meeting in opposition to Mayor Mark Fraser's budget, it wasn't because his budget was too high — it was because he'd cut some pet items out of the budget that the councilors favored.

Now, it is true when Krahulec and Bolduc say you can't trust them to hold down costs, nor for anything else except to take care of their friends. The only initiatives Krahulec gets excited about are those items that deal with Bike Week,during which she makes thousands of dollars renting to vendors, while Bolduc has a soft spot for his employer's once illegal, now legal sign while ordering churches to remove banners promoting church events.

There is no evidence in either Bolduc's or Krahulec's records that they're interested in cutting spending — their votes have proven otherwise.

There is plenty of evidence, however, that both oppose funding public education, even though they proudly proclaim to be supportive of the schools.

My advice is to ignore their advice. They admit they can't be trusted, and if they're no longer on council the alleged need for a tax cap vanishes.

For all of their supposed concern for their constituents, I'd like them to defend their failure to maintain the city's infrastructure. The roads are crumbling, the parks are in desperate need of repair, the fire department needs more and better equipped space, and too many Laconians are still without public water and sewage.

While they criticize the schools for having not taken care of their facilities problems, are they forgetting that it's council that controls the purse strings, and the school board can only request funds? And for the past several years, the school board has been requesting funds to no avail.

Krahulec and Bolduc are the voices of despair, claiming that Laconia dare not aim for progress. Oh, yeah, they talk about wanting to help those people who are about to lose their homes to high property taxes. Yet they never presented anyone who's lost a home because of rising taxes, and they know full well that there are provisions in the law to help those who are unable to pay their taxes.

So on November 8, send Krahulec and Bolduc a message. Send them back to their Wards in defeat with the hope they'll think twice before trying to mislead the people of Laconia again.

Christy Cunningham

Laconia