Love: "We did raise taxes." Some people are just bad with money…like Mia Love. As Mayor Love spent Saratoga Springs into debt. Love voted to raise taxes 195%. She took a raise for herself and her staff but shortchanged police officers who are now threatening to sue Love and the city for back wages. If Mia Love is this bad with money as Mayor of a small city do we really want her in Washington?

Love: "We did raise taxes"

Love: “We Did Raise Taxes.” In 2010, at the Hinckley Institute of Politics Mayoral Debate, Love said, “It’s been – last year we did, well two years ago actually, we did raise taxes, and it was probably the most difficult thing to do. However, the reason why we did it was that our taxes were so low to begin with. And I found that sometimes raising it just a little bit year by year is probably best than doing that big jump. You know you always have to balance when it’s justified to raise taxes and when it’s not.” [Hinckley Institute of Politics Mayoral Debate, 3/09/10]

Love Spent Saratoga Springs into Debt. The result was a $792,000 deficit from 2008 to 2009, coming off a $315,000 surplus in the previous year. In fiscal year 2009-2010, spending almost doubled from $8 million to $14.59 million, and Saratoga Springs ran a deficit of $2,585,000. [Daily Caller, 3/20/12]

Raised Taxes 195%. “In 2007, 2008 and 2009, as a member of the city council, Love voted for budgets that increased property taxes. From 2007 to 2008, property tax rates increased by 116 percent. From 2008 to 2009, they went up another 21 percent, and another 13 percent in 2010.” [Daily Caller, 3/20/12]

Love More than Doubled Saratoga Springs’ Property Tax Rate in 2008. “But when the housing bubble burst, Saratoga Springs was hit especially hard. In 2008, facing a budget shortfall of more than $3 million, the council faced an option of a 400 percent tax increase or slashing the budget. They did a little of both, cutting the budget by about $2 million, laying off eight of the 85 employees and — in the most controversial move — more than doubling the property tax rates, imposing a 116 percent increase.” [Salt Lake Tribune, 2/08/12]

Love Took Pay Raise, Not Police Officers. According to the Daily Herald, Love’s salary has increased but a group of Saratoga Springs police officers is considering litigation because they say the city reneged on promises to make yearly pay raises. [Daily Herald, 10/26/12; and video here: LINK]