In 2014, incumbents of the Town of Newmarket Council threw in everything and the kitchen sink to ensure that tax fighter Maddie Di Muccio did not get re-elected.
Newmarket has never seen such a nasty campaign. We saw a barrage of very negative tactics which included bogus trumped up charges under the Council Code of Conduct, outrageously malicious Youtube ads, kangaroo court council procedures and defamatory hate mail delivered anonymously to constituent's mailboxes.
Hopefully that was the lowest these people will stoop.
Unfortunately, these tactics worked. Maddie Di Muccio was tossed from office. The candidate that Council approved of, Kelly Broome Plumley, has been quietly occupying the Ward 6 seat, never stirring to ask any difficult questions, and always dutifully voting in concert with her patrons' wishes just like I predicted here: http://nwkttownhall.blogspot.ca/2014/10/newmarkets-manchurian-candidate.html
The gruesome twosome have never had it so good.
With the release of the 2015 expense report, residents can now see how good these incumbents have things.
Just look at how much their discretionary spending has increased in the one year since Maddie Di Muccio left Council:
Council Member Percentage Increase in Discretionary Spending 2014 & 2015
Tony Van Bynen 115.34%
John Taylor 222.11%
Tom Vegh 29.46%
Dave Kerwin 74.60%
Jane Twinney 64.49%
Tom Hempen 800.49%
Joe Sponga 74.91%
In the case of the gruesome twosome specifically, the amount of funds provided by the taxpayers of Newmarket wasn't enough to sate their appetites for spending. They also dipped into public money belonging to York Region.
In the case of John Taylor, it allowed him to spend more than the money allocated by the Town. Including the travel costs he was reimbursed by York Region, Taylor spent 124% of the funds he was allocated by the Town of Newmarket.
Spend. Spend. Spend.
Taylor ought to be ashamed.
In the case of Tony Van Bynen, he squirreled money into the Region to avoid appearances that he exhausted the entire amount of his allocated budget with his reckless ways.
As taxpayers, it makes no difference to us whether the Region or Newmarket paid for the gruesome twosome's travel costs.
We get one property tax bill.
And if a taxpayer cared enough to take a closer look at the paperwork, they'd realize that most of their tax dollars via council expenses go to the very businesses or community organizations that help the same politicians get elected time and time again.
That's how empires evolve.
And that's how democracy loses.
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