Northeast News
August 1, 2012

This crafty li’l canine is taking a good look at the upcoming city elections and isn’t real excited about the possible outcomes.

Backers of both questions are using the tag line “Reform, Repeal, Repair.” This news pooch is thinking more like “Tax, Spend, Repeat.”

Question 1 aims to eliminate a number of present fees such as the $12.50 motor vehicle fee and the boulevard frontage tax and replace it with a one-half cent sales tax. The replacement sales tax would, according to proponents, generate roughly $24 million in revenue to supposedly fix streets, sidewalks and infrastructure.

Dave Helling over at The Star aptly points out that roughly 20 percent of that money will be used to pay back Tax Increment Financing (TIF) projects. The rest of the money goes into the General Fund.

We all know how that works, don’t we? A general slush fund to be raided for pet projects. Given this city’s propensity to spend like a drunken sailor, and with no foreseeable sunset to this tax, we’re not pulling the lever for this one.

Question 2 is much the same. We thought extortion was illegal. Proponents of Question 2 are saying that if revenue bonds aren’t issued to fix the aging water infrastructure, water and sewer rates will jump substantially. Didn’t that just happen this month? Please tell me what the difference is whether my doggie water rates go up now or two years from now. Holding the citizens hostage by threatening a water rate increase if a referendum isn’t passed crosses this li’l doggie’s line in the sand. Enough is enough, and this is where this dog stops the tax-and-spend bus.