The College Park City Council voted to raise property taxes in order to put more police on patrol in the city. I have always supported an increased police presence, and I voted for the tax increase to get it. But before I did, I asked what I thought was an important question: How can the council make homeowners pay higher taxes without ourselves reducing even one line item in the city’s budget?

Currently, the city has budgeted nearly $92,000 for the mayor, council and city staff to attend numerous conventions from Ocean City to Las Vegas — are these line items so sacrosanct they are not to be questioned?

I don’t advocate reducing city services to residents. But I do feel that the council needed to show — if only symbolically — that we understand the financial burden we are putting on homeowners, especially retirees on fixed incomes, hard-working families and small business owners, who are the first to experience any downward turn in the economy. Since then, dozens of e-mails and phone calls have been generated on that question. This is participatory democracy as it was meant to be practiced, and it makes me very proud to be a College Park resident. I hope that none of us would ever be afraid to ask questions that stimulate debate.

Mark Cook
College Park City Council Member
District 3