Comments on: Apple Valley City Council Members Step Down Now!

By: NW

NW — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:40:45 +0000

IMO the City of AV runs itself. Ask most residents who’s on the city council, and I’ll bet they can’t give one name. In fact, many AV residents don’t even know the mayor’s name. After your rant, maybe residents will pay attention. Thanks.

By: JP

JP — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:59:48 +0000

Momkat,

It’s not the $35. It’s the fact that we have 200+ years of “small” tax increases. This adds up. Let me tell you a quick story, it might be TMI but follow along.

Since 2005, my portion of the taxes payable to AV city has increased $489.81; or 40.82 per month. No ISD 196 levies included. Now, that sounds like one additional meal out per month; money that would flow through the local economy. Instead I cannot even tell you what I got for it.

To help understand where I am coming from I moved from Lakeville in 2005. There my city taxes were $1410/yr less than now. Understand my house is worth a bit more… whatever … I consume the EXACT same city services. So from my perspective it costs almost 4 times as much to live in AV (lakeville was 25.28%)

So if you were me, how would you feel about $35? I’m very mad. … and need to get back to work to pay the bills. I wonder if the city council is working on a Saturday.

By: Bill

Bill — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:40:59 +0000

Momkat, I’ll let you know if I think you’re trolling — no worries there. In this case, I think that you’re doing exactly what I asked for which is offering your opinion on the matter and I’m fine with that. So don’t worry about what anyone else here thinks as this is my house and we play by my rules… Ok?

As for your analogy… So you went out to dinner with your husband and you spent $35. I don’t know about your situation but here in our household, even though I do restaurant reviews, we have scaled back our eating out budget quite a bit as well as just about everything else we do. We have taken steps to make sure that when we do go out to eat for the website that we’re doing it with coupons or taking advantage of other deals to make it more affordable. So, while we are still able to do all those things we used to do, we’re just not doing them quite as much and thus that’s the whole idea of trimming the fat from our budget so that we can still operate without adding to our debt burden. This is obviously something that the Apple Valley City Council doesn’t seem to understand. They should be trimming the fat from their budget and making cuts to ensure that while everything operates as it always did, it isn’t adding an additional burden.

The residents of Apple Valley are not the city council’s bank and we’re not here to give them a loan when they don’t know how to budget properly during lean times.

I hope that makes some more sense to you.

By: Momkat of Apple Valley

Momkat of Apple Valley — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:31:44 +0000

My husband and I just had dinner at Old Chicago, spent about $35, which seems to be about what our taxes will go up next year with the new AV budget. Bill, I was surprised by the contrast between the ferocious anger over a small tax increase and the bon vivant restaurant reviews. I’ll probably read subsequent restaurant reviews here but have a feeling I’m seen as a troll by the other posters since our viewpoints are so different so I won’t be annoying you with comments on the non-restaurant items.

RyanG, I can see if you don’t spend any time in city or county parks or the library system and like me have no children for the school system, you can keep on not wanting anything from the local government. But you don’t even drive on taxpayer maintained streets and roads and would forego calling fire or police departments if the occasion arose?–wow, just wow.

By: RyanG

RyanG — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:47:55 +0000

Amen Brother….
I do not know the specifics of your case there…. but I full well understand the politics, ethics, and morality of that situation.

Those of us who live our lives not wanting anything from government and do not look to government are eventually going to vested in participating.

Too much is being taken for uses outside of the appropriate purpose of Government.

By: jp

jp — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:17:19 +0000

Bill, thanks for calling them out as it is appropriate. As a taxpayer, I expect the city council to at least try to live within their means. When I moved to AV from lakeville in 2005, I would have never guessed the massive tax increases.

Now I personally wish the voters would have turned down the massive park increase. This seems to give the council justification for further hikes.

By: Whit o' Wit

Whit o' Wit — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:04:53 +0000

Momkat, not to speak for Bill, but a lot of taxpayers are frustrated, and perhaps what you read on this site is what people are muttering under their breath to themselves when they read about the latest government folly. The only difference being, Bill has a wider audience.

It’s a feeling of helplessness, that once people are in office, they seem to have a hard time connecting with how people are feeling about their decisions. In responst to the “take a walk in their shoes” idea, I know you can’t please everyone all the time, but some of this stuff is just senseless.

As to having all of the displeased run for office, I don’t think that’s a solution, either. Not everyone is cut out for that, or has time between two jobs and kids, or whatever their situation. But that doesn’t mean their opinion doesn’t count, or that they are just naysayers or backseat drivers. The point is, officeholders are trusted by the electorate to do the right thing while the electorate goes about daily lives making money, living, and paying taxes. When that trust appears to be misplaced, the electorate has a right (in fact a duty) to speak out about it. I know this is long winded, and I’m sorry, but it upsets me when people take the time to speak out about their opinions, and put their names on the line in doing so, and then are viewed as part of the problem.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:39:35 +0000

Momkat, you too should be angry that your taxes are going up because the city council is mismanaging funds. Other South Metro cities have made serious budget cuts to bring down the amount passed along to the taxpayers but Apple Valley doesn’t need to do that because it’s all the fault of the taxpayers themselves, right?

As to your question, no, I don’t believe either. I just feel that they aren’t doing everything they can to reduce the tax burden and this they are failing to do what they were elected to do.

By: Momkat of Apple Valley

Momkat of Apple Valley — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:02:06 +0000

Bill, you always sound so angry. I was drawn to your site from the recent publicity and have read a lot of your posts. I wonder if you would benefit from walking in the shoes of a council member–guess you’d have to run for office and win to do that. Do you really think the council members are either out to do the city harm or are totally stupid? Just wondering.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:54:57 +0000

from Bill Roehl
to info@ci.apple-valley.mn.us
date Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 6:53 PM
subject Please read this and respond to the people of Apple Valley

See here: http://www.lazylightning.org/apple-valley-city-council-members-step-down-now

Thank you,
Bill Roehl
Apple Valley, MN resident