We need to revisit this story for a second. In July, it was reported that Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, a Democratic congressional candidate for the eighth district, tried to raise taxes to fund a host of DEI boondoggles. Luckily, the city council was wise and rejected this 2023 budget item, which amounts to a three percent increase in property taxes (via Fox News):
Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, once proposed raising taxes to make room for a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) officer.
A "DEI coordinator" was among eight new hires in the city’s 2023 proposed budget and would have set aside $25,500 for the position. To cover the costs of that opening and those of a police chief, a fire chief, a business administrator, a solicitor and a director of public works, the budget included a 3% property tax increase, estimated to generate $957,000 for the city.
The positions were estimated to cost $380,500. That budget was not adopted.
We now have footage from the meeting where numerous city council members went over the books and found that this tax-increase push was unnecessary. The city had the money to fund not just the DEI coordinator, but the raises she proposed for municipal workers.
Councilman Mark McAndrew noted that Scranton had a cash surplus from the COVID relief package passed by Joe Biden. In fact, they had so much money that they could fund the entirety of Mayor Cognetti's proposal without raising taxes. They just needed to dip into the fund.
Now-former councilman Bill King, who was an ally of Mayor Cognetti, even voiced concerns about the pay raise coupled with the tax hikes, adding that he was concerned at the time for the average taxpayer within the city limits.
Councilman Tom Schuster, who was re-elected to another term on the council last year, was aghast that the mayor would propose tax hikes amid the shambolic, torpid Biden economy, throwing the mayor’s words about economic hardship back in her face as she wanted more taxes to fund DEI antics.
It’s a telltale sign that someone doesn’t know how to run things. Seattle’s mayor is a classic example of that as well, and she’s facing a moment now where a majority of Democrats in the city want her gone.
Cognetti also said five years ago that illegal aliens have done nothing wrong. So she’ll push for ruinous tax hikes for DEI drivel and wants to decimate American working families by supplanting them with cheap illegal alien labor.
It sounds like she’s an absolute nightmare to represent the district.
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