Stop the press: Congratulations from the Minneapolis Shadow to Minneapolis City Council

As much as I, the Minneapolis Shadow, will condemn the Minneapolis City Council when they do something dumb and crazy, which is most of the time, I’ll also give them a “that a boy/girl” when they do something right and in the best interest of the public. Council Member Paul Ostrow, who has been out front on the issue noting that there is no need for an investigation into the police conduct regarding the RNC, deserves a pat on the back. The police followed all the proper procedures, acted in the best interest of the public, and went to great extra-ordinary lengths to do the right things. Kudos to the police, chief, and the council members who voted down Cam Gordon’s attempt to cost the city unneeded expense. Bravo!

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!

Learning where to set priorities and work within our system

The city council has historically spent unprecedented amounts of taxpayers’ dollars on pet projects and bad brokered deals to the point they have successfully legalize unlawful use of the public money. This problem is rooted in a general mindset of most of the elected officials in this town that the taxpayers’ money is an unlimited pot to dip in for all their high ideals rather than look upon the money as a public TRUST. We as the owners of the government have a responsibility to pay for it, however the “elected” have the responsibility to spend the funds wisely. Most of the blame for this occurring falls on the majority of the general public for allowing it to occur. Shame on you voters for not being informed and educated enough to see what you are electing for what they really are, thieves.
The city council members, like Paul Ostrow, whine about situations like the one they are currently facing with the federal government not fully reimbursing the city for all of the costs related to the bridge collapse as they had requested. It will be interesting to hear the results from the hearings on this matter, and the reasons the full requested amount isn’t being reimbursed. Given the city’s habit of asking for more than it needs, spending control issues, and general lack of respect for the taxpayers; I would expect that the findings would fall into one of those categories. Instead of sucking it up and cutting back on spending they will either; fight it out until they get what they want or run into a brick wall, raise our taxes to cover the expense, or try to steal it from somewhere else. Here again, we the citizens get the government we ask for. We keep electing these people and promoting them to higher office. For example, Diane Loeffler gets elected to the state house of representatives after working in the financial office of the city of Minneapolis, which is riddled with financial problems costing the taxpayers millions. Way to elect someone we can trust with the state coffers! We have elected officials and citizens running around singing the praises of the James Oberstar (not even elected from Minneapolis) who is promising to use Federal Highway funds to build bike paths in Minneapolis. Do you think maybe we should use, or should have used, that money for bridge repair, inspection, and reconstruction? Does anyone think along these lines? NO! They want it both ways. This type of government mentally may work in other countries with other forms of government, but not here in the USA. Our government, regardless of party, have gotten away from basic principles that work for the way our government is setup. Like in football you need to play to your strengths. The strengths of this country is our freedom to pursue our personal goals, an economic system that allows for the feeding the basic human desire to achieve, and a government serves the people not the other way around. The government is setup to service the citizens for which they can’t do for themselves, and the government ceases to function properly when working outside of that charge. Clearly our government at all levels has gone beyond that charge and no longer functions properly. We the citizens need to recognize that fact and make the proper corrections.