Kevin Jourdain for Holyoke City Councilor At Large

01/03/2026

Looks like the ball in Times Square wasn't the only ball getting dropped recently. "Great leader" sent out the tax bills without proof checking them. The bills are still overcharging the public for the CPA tax they voted to cut in November 2024 over his veto. The CPA tax rate was lowered to 1% but they still have it at 1.5%. They had 14 months to fix it but obviously didn't. Just another day at the office for "Great Leader." Please make sure you get your reduction in your 4th quarter bill and final payment.

12/30/2025

Please re-read this when "great leader" tells you no other community is more affordable.

Plus these communities also put millions on their tax levies by using their free cash reserves ( unspent funds from prior years) to reduce their tax bills but Holyoke doesn't because we don't have free cash because our accounts are not reconciled timely and we don't have free cash certified. So you just pay more because of their incompetence.

How did Holyoke miraculously manage on reasonable annual increases for decades until "great leader" arrived? We even built a large stabilization fund.

Never mentioned also is that "great leader" never uses his advocacy for proper state funding for the city and just lets them get away with not only underfunding Holyoke but actually increasing our local share for school costs. Even though we are broke and Boston sits on billions in reserves and we have to pay millions more per year because of their baloney formulas. Need to stay in Governor's good graces apparently. Might need a new job at some point.

12/06/2025

Holyoke Taxes compared to Springfield and Chicopee

Some constituents asked me to provide comparison data on Holyoke Tax Rates and Bills compared to Springfield and Chicopee to see which was worse.

Holyoke tax rate is $17.43 for residential and $38.16 for business.
Chicopee is $15.24 for residential and $32.60 for business.
Springfield is $15.46 for residential and $34.35 for business.

The average residential tax bill in Holyoke is $5,319. In Chicopee it is $4,580 (-14%) and Springfield is $4,255 (-20%).

So if Holyoke, Chicopee and Springfield all have similar issues then why are they all so much more affordable? Because Josh Garcia is not their mayor. He has raised our taxes 26% since he took office.

(You can also see the dramatic difference in business tax rates too compared to these other communities!)

Holyoke government today is run on "feelings" instead of facts. How are you feeling Holyoke about paying so much more than Chicopee and Springfield? Hopefully good because the Mayor claims he has a mandate to double down on his current policies. He might be right, but of course what happens when you run out of other peoples' money.

12/05/2025

This sounds like Holyoke explaining its finances to the Department of Revenue

12/04/2025

Get your wallets out Holyoke. There is a 7% Residential tax increase coming. Mr Mayor (with the support of his current majority on the Council) increased the Tax Levy by $3.16 million. Even with the max shift of the rates between business and residential in favor of residential (because residential values increased by 7%) that was approved last night residential taxes are going up by an unprecedented amount because the levy is so high. Avg residential tax bills are up $1,100/per year (+26%) since he took office. He is also planning another big sewer rate increase shortly. Just imagine how much he is going to increase the bills once his new super-majority rubber stamp Council takes office. He will be in tax and spend heaven.

The Holyoke City Council voted 10 to 2 to increase taxes, marking the largest tax hike in the city’s history.