Dear Editor:

The City has $59,600,000 in cash and investments as of June 30, 2014. That is $ 7,000,000 more than the City had on June 30, 2013. Unbelievable!  A significant amount of this money is in a non- interest bearing checking account, very unproductive.

In spite of this $ 59,600,000 in the bank, we have at least two council people, Councilmen Mercer and Smiley, claiming that the City is in a dire financial shape and did not tighten its belt in spending. The additional tax recently voted in by Council fattens these coffers even more. Both Council people state that the City is spending money inappropriately on capital improvements like our streets and other expenses. To Smiley, all disbursements are equal, street improvements, included.

You see folks, neither Calvin Mercer nor Rick Smiley understand that the City has many reserves set up by city management to hide the fact that this $59,600,000 is available for  purposes  used to justify the last city tax increase vote. Both of these council people cite the auditors and a rating agency to support their political agenda of tax increases. But both of these so called independent parties can be bought and paid for by city management to sing the song that management wants to tell, “No cash”.

In fact, City management wants to add even more money to this booty; “darn” the fact that Greenville has one of the highest tax rates of North Carolina municipalities. Let’s just raise the tax rate even further for our citizens, it is easy to manage an organization when you have a lot of cash. And when you have financially illiterate individuals like Calvin and Rick who fall for this perverted city management logic, we taxpayers are forced to pay the bill for their improper and costly financial philosophy.

Terry Boardman

Greenville