Saturday, October 14, 2006
Wasteful spending and arrogance
What a combination! Those two qualities so well exemplify the local swells and Chamber of Commerce types who recently tried to ram $18 million of new taxes down our throats. The story in Friday's Democrat-Gazette (subscription required, sorry) was a hoot.
Of course, it is an outrage that the jail tax backers spent something like $60,000 more than they raised. Here is the questions: Why would intelligent business people deliberately opt for deficit spending?
The answer I would like to suggest is that they expected to personally benefit from the "extra" $12 million left laying around every year - after jail operations and repairs were paid.
How can these same people expect to have any credibility proposing to rural lawmakers that they should pick up the tab for Little Rock foolishness?
Case closed.
Supporters of a failed ballot measure that would have increased sales taxes to generate money for the Pulaski County jail raised more than $114,000 for their campaign and spent even more, according to final financial reports filed Thursday.
Citizens for Safe Neighborhoods raised $114,400 and spent $174,156, with the bulk of the money going toward campaign management and advertising before the Sept. 12 election. The campaign paid local marketing agency Cranford Johnson Robinson & Woods $117,629, according to the report filed with the Arkansas Ethics Commission.
Leading up to the election, the organization mailed fliers, sponsored telephone calls and other ads. The group also spent $14,422 on ads that ran in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Citizens for Safe Neighborhoods is still collecting funds and will file an amended final report at a later date, said Jay Chesshir, the group’s secretary and Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce president.
Taxpayers Against Wasteful Spending, which opposed the quarter-cent sales tax, raised $3,670 and spent $3,621, mostly on advertising such as handbills and radio spots, as well as $1,488 for inserts in the Democrat-Gazette.
The tax increase was rejected by a vote of 12,089 to 16,116 in the third unsuccessful bid to raise money for the jail in the past decade. The tax would have raised more than $18 million a year for operations and maintenance, and would have helped the county reopen jail space that is now closed as well as pay for further construction.
Of course, it is an outrage that the jail tax backers spent something like $60,000 more than they raised. Here is the questions: Why would intelligent business people deliberately opt for deficit spending?
The answer I would like to suggest is that they expected to personally benefit from the "extra" $12 million left laying around every year - after jail operations and repairs were paid.
How can these same people expect to have any credibility proposing to rural lawmakers that they should pick up the tab for Little Rock foolishness?
Case closed.
