Certainties: death and wasteful spending

This appeared in today's lohud  as a letter to the editor-- I thought it was so good, I had to post it, even though it is only tangentially related to our blog.

Great line:  "Yonkers, the city of hills where nothing is on the level."



http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/OPINION/809230316/-1/newsfront

Certainties: death and wasteful spending

Wow. Yonkers' more than 1,000 city vehicles used approximately 557,000 gallons of fuel at approximately $1.2 million last year. Amazingly, the city claims it has no record of how the 144 take-home cars are used. What are the insurance costs for these cars? Are they given EZ Passes? What are the maintenance costs? What other expenditures doesn't the city have records for?

I remember years ago people spoke of our city as "Yonkers, the city of hills where nothing is on the level." That not only described the geographical features, but it also described the city politics.

This year, my city property taxes increased $803 (and county taxes 24 percent). If the waste and incompetency in government were corrected, our taxes would be more reasonable.

I always try to find a "bright side." Well, for me, it's that I'm 85 with a probable five winters to go. Soon this will be over for me. I hope to get to that "finish line" before I run out of money. Many in my position wish the same.

What would be nice - if I die a pauper - that the city use one of its take-home cars to take my body home to St. Joseph's Cemetery. Why not? Nobody's keeping tabs. Hey, it will be our little secret. I certainly won't tell anyone.

Cass Cetnarowski

Yonkers