The idea that their is a cap is ridiculous. I believe I posted that every increase letter I looked at was more than $20.00. Perhaps when such information is offered a little more investigation should be done . Some people are trusted to give correct information. An argument later about who was more correct in being wrong is a little silly.
This is just a clear case of the executives of our City NOT thinking through a policy, and then refusing to rectify the injustice because it falls mostly upon poor people. It is like much of the programs and "reforms" the City has played with in the last few years. It starts out as a wonderful idea, but that goes astray because there is simply not the carry-through and good-work to make it succeed. Something is attempted as flash to look good, and then left to drown because it is not "completely thought through".
The reformation of MCDA into CPED is also a clear example of this. The idea was to simplify the process and make MCDA and Planning MORE open and answerable to citizen and neighborhood involvement (and MORE efficient). Instead, we have the mess we presently have where layer upon layer of bureaucracy have been layered upon all CPED activities, and the citizens and neighborhoods have been completely cut out of any, even semi-official, oversight capacity. One stop shopping has become 101 Dalmatians, where every time you turn around you have a new puppy with new spots to account for.
The real problem is not the staff of the City. The real problem is the management (or lack of it). The real problem is that we continue to elect well meaning nice people who simply are incompetent to manage our City. We elect people who will not, or are incapable of, take the responsibility to do the management work to make good ideas successful. We elect people who are slick and glib with promises, but who are not smart enough to realize their shortcomings and get the expert advice they need to make the good ideas brought to them by residents and civil servants succeed.
Then again perhaps the perceived mistake is not one at all. Perhaps the "StormWaterGate" is simply an attempt to raise extra revenue on the backs of those least likely to scream (or vote), the poor neighborhoods of the City. My question is where the extra money, being fraudulently (and now knowingly) stolen from poor neighborhoods and poor people, going? Is it to subsidize the more affluent neighborhoods or is it being used as a hidden means of raising revenue without having it raise the taxes of those same more affluent voters?
The stormwater matter should be immediately fixed by the Mayor and Council; or they should admit that they have imposed an extra tax upon poor neighborhood people where small duplexes abound. The grocery stores give us poorer quality produce and service, the gas stations charge us ten to fifteen cents extra for a gallon of gas, and now the Mayor and Council is charging us more for less service. Yes, it is expensive to live in a poor neighborhood in this Minneapolis.
David Brauer's coining of the term "Stormwatergate" is appropriate in this case. Haven't our politicians learned anything from national politics and the original Watergate. The ignoring of the problem and attempts to cover up bungling causes the real damage and scandal. Simply fix the "StormWaterGate", admit you were wrong, and pay the unfairly taxed people back.
Where are these extra property taxes and hidden "taxes" and fees going? I am being charged so much more, for so much less, in the last few years that I can not believe it. My street is like driving down a lunar landscape, my streets are filthy, the Third Precinct police was stacked up with sometimes twenty unanswered calls at a time last night because there are not enough police officers to handle them, and I am getting charged more each day. In the last three years I seem to pay 10% more each year for taxes and fees and get 10% less in services each year.
Like the old lady said, "Where's the beef". I'm tired of the bull. The "Promise Bun" has gotten larger and the beef patty has become smaller. So we settle for the bull-ogna sandwich, cause a flashy person says it is a porterhouse? We need a whole lot less bull and a lot more beef!
Now you folks stop reading this and get out there and enjoy this soft, warm, mellow morning. (It could be cold and snow) It will make the sunny day tomorrow even better. May the joy of love be with each of us.
Jim Graham, complaining from the porch steps in Ventura Village.
" The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."
- Thomas Jefferson
“We can only be what we give ourselves the power to be” – A Cherokee Feast of Days
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