St. Charles needs new council blood

The city of St. Charles is in need of a more fiscally responsible mayor and council members. The city ran a $3 million deficit last year and budgeted a $5 million deficit this year. The city is estimating that the property base will go up 7 percent while the school system is estimating a 3-percent increase.

Could it be that the city is optimistically estimating higher property tax revenue in order to get by the next election before raising taxes? No major cost cutting has occurred. Most of these people also gave us the First Street Project that was negotiated without any significant fiscal concession by the developer and which will probably provide more store retail space than is needed. Of course the council refused to have a marketing study to determine if there is a market for this retail space.

Clearly we are in need of new leadership. The council members ran unopposed in the last election. The next election is for selecting the mayor and a council member from each ward. I strongly urge people who want to aid their neighbors to run for office. I would run if I was young enough. Remember, you do get paid.

If you are interested you should call the mayor's office to get a candidate package by early January at the latest. You will have to get certain number of citizen signatures in order to run. Don't worry about not having previous experience. Anyone with a will to improve our city government will be an aid to our community.

Gene Kalley

St. Charles