Not voting for incumbents

With our city elections next Tuesday, this is my final letter on the City Hall issue. I want to show you how much this city council is spending per man, woman and child and compare it to other cities selected from the largest 20 in Montana.

My statistic will be the latest budget expenditure $63 million and divided by the population of 6,612. Our score is $9,535 per capita. In fairness to our mayor who suggested that it is unfair to include the $15 million for the City Hall and parking package, I will re-compute the score excluding the $15 million. The new score is $7,300.

Remember that the number is the cost PER PERSON for one year!

Add to that: the Canada dollar is only worth 75 cents, thus fewer visitors from the north and a new government has been sworn in and has promised to restructure some of the Canada tax code. What would be a simple and almost painless money raising tax? How about taxing imports from the U.S., forcing Canadians to shop more in Canada! Who do you thing will have to make up that loss of Canada dollars? Hint: run to your nearest mirror.

If you missed previous letters, go to LetUsVoteWhitefish.com. For those who haven’t voted – on Tuesday I will vote for two younger unknowns, Katherine Williams and Barton Slaney.

They’re both smart, energetic and concerned about the size of our budget. I will NOT be voting for the incumbents (Hildner and Sweeney) neither of whom seem concerned about expenses.

— Richard Atkinson, Whitefish