-----Original Message----- From: Michael C. Libby What we really need, at all levels of government, is some form of line item taxation, where your rate is set at x%, but each citizen can earmark their contribution for specific areas of government.
[TB] Really? That would probably be good for public safety advocates. If, for example, we had a few more beat cops we might not have read in this mornings paper about a rape at a downtown bus stop at 5:30 last Friday evening. http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3429901.html The Strib story tells us: "Michael D. Stigler, 44, tried to engage a 21-year-old woman in conversation at 8th St. and Hennepin Av. S. about 5:30 p.m. Friday, according to court documents filed Tuesday. She tried to walk away, but he forced her to a fenced area of a nearby parking lot, the charges said." The Fire Department would probably get lots of money. What wouldn't get much money? Would we still be cleaning up and then developing brown spaces? Would we defer infrastructure repair until the streets and sewers literally fell apart? Would we clean anything? Would we see paid advertisements for and against various spending programs along the line of what we see during election campaigns? Maybe: This Northeast Minneapolis neighborhood (pan to picture of new storefront with upper level affordable apartments) has seen millions of YOUR redevelopment dollars go into .... Don't earmark anymore money for Northeast send it to Bryn Mahr? Then maybe we should just get rid of the City Council and start having Town Meetings. Terrell Brown Loring Park (home of tonight's Minneapolis Citizens' Fair) terrell at terrellbrown dot org btw, my council rep reads her email __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
