If the voters didn’t pass the taxes, Kenner would face cuts
“that everyone will feel”, or so the Mayor claimed.
For his part, Caraway said that there would be mass layoffs
and a huge increase in crime, if voters didn’t act to increase his take of
property taxes.
As we know now, the taxes were defeated and there were no
significant cuts to Kenner City Government. In fact, Mayor Yenni increased the
already top-heavy Kenner Administration adding more Directors and Assistant
Directors, creating additional departments, and granting huge raises to his
political appointees disguised as “auto and cell phone allowances”. I don’t
know about you but my unlimited everything cell phone plan costs $50 per month,
or $100 less than Yenni’s top aides receive and I don't get a $400/month auto allowance to drive from my house to city hall. The Mayor has also failed to
disclose that the City has run a budget surplus for the past three years.
We also know that the amount of Kenner’s police officers has
remained the same. In discussing Mayor Yenni’s tax plan, Chief Caraway
conveniently failed to mention that Kenner must maintain a minimum level of
officers to continue to receive many grants.
And now we know that not only was there not a huge increase
in Kenner’s crime rate, crime actually was down in 2012 compared to 2011.
Overall crime was down 4% in 2012, with decreases in six of
the seven measured categories. Rape increased in Kenner from 10 in 2011 to 12
in 2012.
Maybe Mayor Yenni will now try to triple property taxes.
That will show those pesky criminals.
