- Mayor Barrett will ask the council next week to approve an immediate $8 boost in the snow and ice fee, from $21 to $29 a year for the average homeowner.

- For 2009, Mayor Barrett wants to raise the solid-waste fee by 28%, or $37, from $132 to $169.

- Mayor Barrett wants to raise the local sewer fee by $6, from $73 to $79.

- Mayor Barrett wants to raise the storm water charge by $2, from $32 to $34.

- City of Milwaukee Common Council imposes a $20 wheel tax on every vehicle in the city.

- Mayor Barrett said, he will recommend a property tax increase more than this year’s 3.4% boost. The exact amount is still being calculated.

Do you see a pattern here? For four days, I listened to the Democrats in Denver tell us how miserable everyone was with rising fuel and food costs, working harder for less, tuition bills going up. And the litaney went on and on.

Please, explain to me, how these tax increases will help all these miserable Americans survive and pay their bills? Have all these Democrats in power, and this goes for the RINO Republicans, ever thought about CUTTING BACK on their budgets like all these miserable Americans have had to?

It’s the same thing we’re hearing now on the national stage, especially from the McCain campaign: “Largest tax increase in the history of the universe”

Like I said though, this will move Milwaukee forward by developing the kind of infrastructure we need to compete economically and enable a quality of lifestyle that will draw workers and their families to the area.

The term “tax increase” is a boogyman phrase that’s been used for too long in our neck of the woods to scare people from ideas that conservatives in this County oppose. If a homeowners property tax bill would be up to 10% lower as a result of this referendum, I think most people would welcome that.

You call it a tax increase which is fine. Some see everything through that narrow prism. I call it investing in our infrastructure, creating jobs, and lowering my property tax bill.