"Technical" language

So today I wrote a little 250-word story for the news section, just since I'm such a nice guy. Anyway while the city editor was over there reading/editing it, I heard him typing, which I thought was very strange, given that there was clearly nothing at all wrong with my story. So I asked what he was typing, given that there was clearly nothing wrong with my story, and he said he was "tightening" it up and taking out the "technical language." His version of taking out the technical language?
1) Adding the word 'levied,' because we all know that an article without 'levied' is an article not written for the common man to understand.
2) Adding the word 'earmarked,' because, again, no one can understand a sentence like, "Measure Y, which was placed on the ballot in 2000, would have provided $5.45 million in bond funds to renovate Tracy High, but wouldn’t have addressed completing West’s facilities" if it doesn't have the word 'earmarked' inserted in a random place.
He also almost insisted on taking out the word 'tentative,' even though I explained that my source said, "I can't stress enough that this list is TENTATIVE."
I had to threaten to kick him so he wouldn't take it out. Editors are pretty great.