Wally Nunn: Councilwoman Reuther finally tells the truth — sort of
According to the Daily Times, Councilwoman Christine Reuther recently blew the whistle on her fellow members of County Council. During a debate over whether to spend $417,542 to equip the park police with tasers, she voted no. Her explanation? “I feel stressed about voting no but… I’m going to feel stressed about laying people off or cutting benefits or cutting services.”
Let’s give credit where it’s due: it’s finally a moment of honesty.
Despite a massive 30 percent increase in taxes — over $54 million in new revenue — the county apparently doesn’t have a single extra dime to properly equip law enforcement. In fact, their own budget documents reveal up to a $40 million operating deficit this year.
Let that sink in.
By the time Councilwoman Reuther leaves office, County Council will have imposed roughly $80–90 million in new taxes. Quite the achievement, especially when those taxes haven’t solved a thing.
Reuther also warned that there will be “difficult discussions” over the next six months about how to reach a balanced budget. How convenient — that timeline pushes those discussions past the next election. One might ask: will the Councilwoman’s newfound candor extend to telling the public how big next year’s tax increase will be? Or the year after?
You may recall that before the last election, Council didn’t bother to mention the largest tax increase in county history. Did they forget? Or did they just lie by omission?
While they’re at it, how about giving us something we haven’t seen since Democrats took control of county government: an honest budget?
Year after year, Council has “balanced” the budget using non-recurring revenue — federal COVID funds, rainy day reserves — most of which are now gone. That leaves them with three options:
1 A massive tax increase
2 Massive program cuts (which they’ll never do), or
3 The Tooth Fairy
Years ago, I predicted a 30 percent tax increase. Councilwoman Reuther responded, “Wally Nunn is entitled to his opinion but not his facts.” In fairness, she had a point — they only raised taxes 29 percent.
Today, my opinion is they’ll have to raise them again. The county is short by $30–40 million. When Democrats took over, real estate tax revenue was around $173 million. When they’re done, it will approach $260 million.
Councilwoman Reuther, I know that’s just my opinion — but lately, my opinions have a better track record than your facts.
So where did all the money go?
• $4–5 million annually in legal fees to favored law firms (up from $400,000 under Republicans)
• De-privatizing the prison, which doubled the daily cost per inmate — from $76 to $146 — and opened the door to massive lawsuits (silver lining: more work for their lawyer friends)
• A redundant Health Department, previously covered by the state for free. Its major accomplishments? Distributing free condoms, tampons, yoga lessons, and letting us know when it’s hot outside. (Thanks — I hadn’t noticed.)
I could go on, but you get the picture.
Council’s only solution? A task force! Councilman Womack has formed one to study cost-cutting. Here’s a better idea: stop voting for every new program your elite friends dream up.
As for the other candidate, County Controller Phillips? On paper, she might sound like a good option — until you realize she’s been asleep at the wheel. Broad + Liberty and now even Councilwoman Reuther are blowing the whistle on spending. Where was the Controller?
Perhaps we should start calling her the “Not-Very-Good-at-Controlling Controller.”
Let’s not forget: when the Democrats first ran for County Council, their rallying cry was “Republican corruption tax.” The irony? Republicans hadn’t raised taxes in decades. Today, it’s fair to ask: Who’s really imposing the corruption tax now?
Wally Nunn is the former Chairman of Delaware County Council.
My suggestion for the County Council’s budget woes: Enchanted unicorns farting rainbows, sparkles and money. In a more sinister vein, I suspect the Council Members are waiting and salivating over the possibility of legal recreational cannabis and regulated skill games. Unless the enabling legislation expressly forbids county and local taxation, these governments will be on taxing them like a duck on a bug. As I have said elsewhere: “if it stands still long enough and doesn’t need painting, it will be taxed.”
If Wally Nunn was still in power along with his crew, we would still have a private prison, and the county gov’t would be private also, wages would be low when he was in power!
great article by Wallace Nunn
Wally Nunn, thank you for this article. You have identified a symptom of a larger societal issue:
Our modern society relies on highly complex, interdependent systems—e.g., energy grids, transportation, healthcare, and IT infrastructure—and they demand a high degree of competence to maintain. 1) When people believed in God, and behaved accordingly, there was a built in degree of integrity in our society. That safeguard is gone. 2) Shifts in hiring and promotion practices, driven by diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, have also systematically sidelined qualified individuals in favor of less competent ones, leading to an erosion of institutional capability. 3) Private Equity firms are hyper-busy exploiting civic institutions like healthcare and youth sports, prioritizing profit for a very select few, over those institutions’ social value to society. I’m not talking about PEs buying up all the local HVAC companies (which is merely annoying and expensive for consumers.) These PE firms are ultimately collapsing our civic institutions (e.g., the hospitals in DelCo) with unsustainable debt, raising prices and cutting quality.
What are the solutions? Let’s start with a LOUD organized call for tax policy reform to protect our necessary institutions for communities and families over financial manipulation. Our Republican leaders are actually Democrats and Republican In Name Only. We need a desperate change to win the local elections. These next local elections are probably lost already. Let’s focus on 2028.