The city Finance Department has released the preliminary 2016 to 2021 budgets. I was not surprised that they would predict a deficit foreach year; however, the amount is amazing. The average amount for each of the years is $844,643 or a 40 percent increase to thecurrent budget.

The increases are spread across all departments relatively evenly with the exception of Parks Department which shows a dramaticincrease to maintain the additions that will occur with the passage of the parks bond. This amount for maintenance will be between$275,000 and $300,000 minimum per year.

The city manager has stated that the city is operating lean and mean. Thus there probably will not be additional economies due to budgetadjustments to take care of the deficit. This being the case do we the people want to increase our taxes to take care of the bondretirement for the Parks Department as well as an increase of some other tax to balance the budget?

Larry Lindstrand
Maple Valley