I’m sorry, but once again City Council Member Barry Peters has his financial facts wrong. At the League of Women Voters Forum (Sept. 4) he disagreed with my numbers that the 2012 budget for the general fund was down and that expenses were up.

The Draft 2012 Budget on the city’s website shows that the proposed 2012 General Fund Budget is $177,759 less than the 2011 Revised Budget, and that the total revenue for all funds is $1,280,239 less in 2012 then in 2011.

Operating expenditures on the other hand are $766,577 greater in 2012 than in 2011. Added together this constitutes a $2,046,816 error on Mr. Peters’ part.

This is exactly the kind of error that got our city into financial trouble in the past when Mr. Peters was chairman of the Finance Committee.

In my former capacity as Vice President of Northrop Grumman, I worked daily with complex financial reports and was responsible to make sure the company was financially sound. After following our city’s current and future budget cycle carefully, I’m unable to make sense of Mr. Peters’ financial analysis.

This is the reason I’m running for city council: to assure our island residents a sustainable financial future based on sound City Council decisions.

Steve Bonkowski

Candidate for City Council