Washburn: Thanks For The No Thanks

I want to thank the voters who braved the cold November winds to support my failed efforts to bring fiscal sanity to the city council.

Had I taken the time to view the Marx Brothers classic “A Night at the Opera” and Groucho’s incredible line “There ain’t no Sanity Clause,” I could have saved a lot of time and effort.

Foolish me.

Judgment day is coming and when the new property tax assessments come out and there will a lot of angst over them. When you pile on the additional taxes needed to cover the prodigious debt expansion, the official city flower may be a for-sale sign.

I can’t wait to hear the excuses of those who have supported this tragedy for years. On the other hand, yes, I can.

You have to understand Concord politics to view the election results.

Concord is a totally blue city. No Republicans hold office. You can be the biggest village idiot, and as long as you are a registered Democrat, you stand a good chance of getting elected.

All you need to do is view the posting of City Councilor Kris Schultz, who is also a state representative, boasting of all the Democrats running for the city council. Schultz is an ongoing council joke who the mayor misidentifies as “Councilor Kurtz” two or three times per meeting.

Both councilors fume over this, but the mayor is the mayor after all.

Is there hope that the new council will experience an epiphany, come to their collective senses, and avert the catastrophic trajectory we are on? Not likely. No matter who criticizes the council, the council will continue on its path to forever change Concord into a Concord that no one can afford to live in. Still, we will have the highest-costing middle school in all of New Hampshire with a continuing decline in enrollment.

The population projections in the new police station plans call for a Concord population of 56,000-plus. Other than the fact that this is totally unrealistic, who will be able to afford to live here by then?