The Fix is in—the Convention Center Tax ballot. October 12, 2010
The Mayor and Board members are elected allegedly to carry out the wishes of the voters and the City Manager is hired to implement those wishes.
Is this being done? Hardly.
The city government, shirking their responsibilities, turned the matter of raising money to resurrect the moribund Civic Auditorium to an Ad Hoc Committee, which allows the voters 3 choices: 2 new taxes and a broken promise.
1. Levy a 1% tax on prepared food
2. Levy a ½% tax on prepared food
3. Reallocate 5% of the DEDICATED Street Tax revenue to the Convention Center. The fact that some Directors are willing to flagrantly violate their honor to reposition a Dedicated tax to some other venue shows they cannot be trusted. If 5% can be removed from the Dedicated street tax this would certainly indicate that the 1% street tax is generating more revenue than the city needs for streets & sewers; therefore where is the excess revenue going now?
Now to the Convention Center ballot. The Ad Hoc committee and City Directors conveniently left out an integral component of the ballot which is: NONE OF THE ABOVE. Another dishonest position.
Gentlemen, why are you consciously eliminating what appears to be a substantial segment of voters from the election process by refusing to allow them to articulate their views, i.e. NONE OF THE ABOVE.
The city has any number of privately owned, for profit venues that create private sector jobs, while paring down the size of city government and generates tax revenue which the Convention Center does not, and can more than adequately serve the needs of the city. Obviously, the privately owned convention centers are not subsidized by the hard pressed city taxpayers.
Directors, with an honest ballot, the possibility of shutting down the failed Convention Center would not be a stain on your political legacies, actually it would be seen as a rational political move in favor of taxpayers.
Kindest regards,
Joe McCutchen
Cc: Citizens