>> RT Rybak and Paul Ostrow gave answers about >> things changing now, about unexpected debts, >> they had not anticipated 9-11, etc. Can >> anyone tell me how 9-11 affected the City of >> Minneapolis' policy or debt?
While it is the mayor and CM's responsibility to clarify their own statements, my guess would be that 911 dried up the "trickle down" of state and federal money coming back to the state. As an aside, I'd love to see some form of local tax go through the roof as long as it were accompanied by a decrease of the taxes I pay to the federal and state government. Decentralization and all that. (OT: Those who support "states rights" should agree with me on the state-to-federal level. Let's flip-flop the 7.x% and 2x% - 3x% income taxes so that we pay most of our taxes to the state and the fed has to ask the states for money rather than me. I never did like the federal income tax ammendment.) >> What the Mayor and City Council should be doing >> is admitting they have a problem and asking how >> to solve it. Not telling us that they learned >> from Brookfield's about defaulting on contracts >> so they are now defaulting on their contract and >> commitment about NRP. Sorry folks, our leaders >> may be stupid enough to allow contracts to be >> unfulfilled, but the public is not. > > You can't save money at this point by blaming > old bad loans. You can only not do them going > forward. I do think a ballpark is officially > toast. Well, if we want a funding source, how about getting this bad loan money paid. If Brookfield defaulted, and every asset they have should be liquidated to pay their debt. The same goes for other debtors. If they find some dodge or hide assests behind bankrupcy, it'd be interesting to see the following done: Figure out who has profited from these defaults and put a new tool on a website which gives people an estimate of exactly how much of their money has gone into each of the defaulter's pockets. Include a link to a mapquest map to those defaulter's homes. If someone breaks into my house and steals more than $500 worth of stuff, they go to jail for a long time (providing we can find enough funding to allow the police to catch them). A group like Brookfield steals millions in broad daylight and walks away scott free? Why do we have a justice system? To keep people who have been wronged from seeking their own justice. If the system keeps failing, somebody may decide that it's time to resort to taking care of it themselves. We have homeless freezing on the streets, inadequate policing to protect neighborhoods from predatory gangs and there are people out there who have stolen millions of the dollars that could have helped fix this? While, of course, I'm not advocating anything, I'd not shed a tear if their houses were to mysteriously burn down, their (I'm typecasting here) SUVs accidently demolished or vandalized, etc. Back into the realm of the legal and potentially likely, the first place the city should look for money is in the pockets of those who already owe the city. If I owe a loan, the people I owe it to are going to get it back, even if it means taking everything I own to cover it. Get it. Don't be nice about it. Slap some punitive costs on top of it as well as some fees to pay for your recovery costs, just get it. As an added bonus, making an example out of the first couple may make other debtors more likely to live up to their responsibilities. How much of our deficit would this cover? - Jason Goray, Sheridan, NE. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
