Mayor Rybak increases taxes to pay for necessities while still spending on non-essentials

Otherwise known as having your cake and eating it too. The Minneapolis Shadow has had it up to my keyboard with the irresponsible spending habits of the Mayor and “silly council”. They think that having a lower increase is something to cheer about. My God, in this period when people are experiencing increases in just about every essential known to man, and they are cheering about increases in taxes. Time to switch to a different brand of Cool-Aid. This isn’t even the only increase “the gang” is proposing. Increase in business taxes to pay for their pet downtown projects, which will result in further driving the business climate down, is just one example. If the bikeway projects are approved they will need to come back and ask for more from the taxpayers. Increases in your state and federal taxes will be coming because of continued spending sprees driven by cities crazies such as Minneapolis. The “elected” officials such as Rybak, Ostrow, Colvin Roy, and Goodman who are cheering on these budget proposals need to be held to account for their insanity. Where are the budget cuts? There are none in Minneapolis! Only budget increase cuts! Just once, once, I’d like to hear some “elected” official say “due to the tight economy that everyone is feeling, we the elected representatives of you the people, are cutting our budgets and lowering taxes, to become good stewards of the taxpayer’s money. We will hold the line on spending, and look for ways to save the city money instead of increasing the tax burden on you the people. “ Does anyone have the “balls” to do that? I think not, because no one on the council has any!

Mayor Rybak grows city government to spend more taxpayer money

The Mayor wants to grow an already bloated government to spend taxpayer money. The Mayor wants to create a new city department that would manage the money and the projects. This is a double-edged sword, since the current NRP system has resulted in a multi-million dollar waste, fraud, and abuse scheme. The current system has allowed neighborhoods to spend the money on staff, offices, pet projects, and created a training ground for future elected officials. I’m all in favor of money being spent in neighborhoods the way the majority of the neighbors want it spent. I thought representing the needs, wants, and desires of the residents was the job of the city council members. However, creating a new city department to do this isn’t the answer either. The extra money, if it must be collected and handed out, should be done between the residents, the existing city planning department, and the council members. This plan doesn’t diminish the role of the community councils at all, and would hold generally elected city officials to account for the plans. We already have a government structure in place to create plans and handout money, USE IT!

For the 5th straight month crime is up in Minneapolis

Here are the numbers for the month of July.
Rape +15%
Robbery +7%
Aggravated Assaults +10%
Burglary +2
Larceny +5
Arson +5%
Overall crime totals +4%

Compared to last July
Homicide +100%
Burglary +9%
Larceny +10%
Overall crime totals +2%
And August is already not looking good in the Homicide department. Where is Mayor Rybak and the “silly council” on this? They must be hiding under their desks or ignoring the problem.

The War on Partisanship

We have had many wars; some militarily and some figuratively. We have had the War On Poverty, the War on Drugs, but where is the War on Partisanship? One of the biggest underlying problems with our political system today is the deepening divide between the political ideologies. Political discourse is the critical foundation of our Republic, however we have lost our ability to focus on solving the issues instead of the rhetoric. Many of my friends are steeped into the political process in one form or fashion in one party or the other. God love them for their beliefs and hard fought stances on issues. The problem is that too much of our policy-making has been compromised by money and pay back issues. Common sense and the good of the people has been replaced by political gamesmanship and partisan “got you one upsmanship”. These games are played on all levels of government.
On the national scene you see that America can’t produce the energy needed to fill the needs of its people. This is due to the silly notion that the oil companies can’t be responsible stewards of the environment.
On the state scene you see that Minnesota can’t provide much needed work on bridges and roads because the funding is misused or political games are being played out by oversized children (see article in the StarTribune http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/26818829.html?page=1&c=y).
On the local city scene you have the one party fiefdom that continually treats Minneapolis like a game of SimCity with the money cheat entered as many times as needed to fulfill it’s ever-loving need for spending.
For the very good of the county, state, and city; Stop the insanity and get to the real work of addressing real problems before we the people declare war on you!