Pocket Change

Last week I attended a City Council business session, which I chronicled in A Little Decorum Please. The main topic to which council members were actually able to force themselves to pay attention was Saundra McFadden-Weaver’s citizen committee report on a landlord registration plan. The committee did not have a recommendation for how to pay for the estimated $765,000/yr the program would cost. Surprisingly enough, since the committee had several landlords on it the suggestion of any type of fees imposed on the landlords themselves was staunchly opposed. (that last sentence was sarcasm folks...) When asked about where this $765,000 was going to come from, Councilperson Weaver went off on a rant about how “we can renovate sports stadiums with millions of dollars and nobody knows where the money is coming from but we can’t find a “measly” $765,000 for the welfare and safety of children living in substandard housing.” Hmmm. I know where the money for the stadiums is coming from, don’t you? 3/8 of a cent on everything purchased in Jackson County. It’s called a sales tax. I think most of us can understand that. I guess it’s just one more example of how elected officials in this town have no concept of finance. As I’ve said before, a few hundred thousand here, a few hundred thousand there, pretty soon you’re talking real money! My head hurts. I’m going to go lay down now.