News release from the Allen County Democratic Party:
TheRealTomHenry.com Can’t Get Its Facts Straight
Paula Hughes Should Ask the Allen County Republican Party to Take the Site Down
The Allen County GOP can’t seem to get its facts right about the Mayor, and the press is starting to notice. The News-Sentinel’s Kevin Leininger noted one of the claims “seriously misrepresents” the Mayor record and that the website “crosses the line.” Under the headline “Not completely real” The Journal Gazette’s Ben Lanka notes that the numbers used to back up another claim “do not represent an increase in the proposed budget.”
As the party’s nominee it’s time for Paula Hughes to ask the party to do the right thing and take the website down.
“The Allen County Republican Party’s website contains numerous factual inaccuracies which have been repeatedly exposed by the press,” said Allen County Democratic Party Spokesman Kevin Knuth. “Paula Hughes should tell her party that they must take this false and misleading website down.”
Claim: “Mayor Henry proposed a whopping 34% property tax increase for his very first budget as mayor”
Fact: As the Journal Gazette noted, “The item cites a story from the News Sentinel, which doesn’t include such a statement anywhere.”The mayor never proposed such an increase, tax rates aren’t set in the budget process for the city, and the actual increase was less than half this amount. In fact the city increased taxes at the same rate Paula Hughes did on the county level, 15%.
Worst of all, the new story the party added after being called out on their error said “that homeowners would be paying less on their tax bills…”
Claim: Henry is the “Father of the County Option Income Tax”
Fact: As the News Sentinel noted on 9/15/2011, “Tom Henry wasn’t the father of local income tax — Republicans were.”Leininger goes on to note “Henry’s alleged paternity came as news to the man who really deserves that title: former Republican Mayor Paul Helmke, who with the late Ed Rousseau – another Republican – pushed through the very tax with which the GOP is now attempting to bludgeon Democrats.”
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