Report Inappropriate Comments

This is the cost of the city council's decision in FY18 to keep the tax rate level and anticipate a 99-percent collection rate: Raising taxes to the maximum amount allowed by state law.

When the once- and soon-to-be twice-defeated candidate for mayor inevitably posts another comment blaming the council for its decisions, readers should remember that he repeatedly claimed that his losing 2016 campaign influenced those same council decisions for the current budget. They should also recall that he has repeatedly criticized the school committee for issuing 72 teacher layoff notices, which would significantly reduce the school department's request for additional funding.

Acting Mayor Solomon, his colleagues on the council, and, by his membership in the Democratic party, the failed candidate own this budget -- they can not blame former Mayor Avedisian for it, just as they can not blame former Mayor Avedisian for their FY18 decisions.

That said, it is a certainty that the make-believe mayor will humiliate himself by trying to argue the opposite.