Our Mayor Gets a Taxpayer-Funded Luxury Car!
Local news is reporting that our city’s mayor gets a leased Cadillac Escalade as part of his job. One of the local stations asked how viewers feel about that.
How do I feel about the fact that the mayor has a car that costs $1150 a month — a sum that is paid for out of public funds?
I earn $38K a year, which means that $1150 is a little more than two weeks’ income for me. My own car payment is $273 a month, roughly 9% of my income. Nobody pays my car payment for me, and my company does not provide cars for its employees.
The mayor currently earns $160K a year, which is about four times my annual salary. His car payment represents 9% of his income. When his new pay raise goes into effect in January, his car payment will represent only 8% of his income. But my tax dollars are paying for his car.
Now consider that my city property taxes — which pay for all the functions of city government, including the mayor’s salary and his car payment — have increased by 300 percent in the past ten years, while my income has increased by only 26 percent. That means that my city taxes have increased from one percent to almost three percent of my annual income.
How do I feel? Furious. Disgusted. Appalled. Quite frankly, it’s an outrage. He should pay for his own car — especially at a time when our city is in financial difficulties, with failing schools and an insufficient police force. How dare he keep using my property taxes to pay for fancy perks for himself — perks that I cannot afford on my salary, and that he could easily afford on his.
1 Comment
A drop in the bucket. The $1100 plus that they are spending on the Cadillac is just a drop in the bucket as far as they are concerned. Their budget is big and if they don’t spend it, they won’t get as much next year.