YEAH, BUT…
I’ve been looking at some of the footage from last Wednesday’s mayoral debate. Incumbent Bart Peterson and challenger Greg Ballard both made the usual claims regarding taxes, crime and quality of life. And while no one lied, per se, there were a few gaps that needed to be filled in.
For example, the Mayor talked about cutting $50 million from next year’s property taxes. Yeah, but $43 million of that would have been eliminated anyway as the city paid off its child welfare debt and got some cash from a settlement with United Airlines.
When Greg Ballard made the claim the city raised taxes 19 times, that’s true, but that also includes increases for police, fire, courts and sewers.
When the Mayor says they’ve cut spending by millions of dollars, that’s true, but they’ve also increased spending in other areas.
When Ballard says he wants to eliminate property taxes and replace it with sales and income tax, that’s true, but none of the alternative tax plans add up and there are some serious issues of local versus state control.
And when the Mayor says there’s a process in place that can determine whether City-County Council President Monroe Gray has engaged in unethical behavior, he’s right, but there already was a hearing and the city’s ethics board ruled Gray was unethical.
Like I said, no one lied per se, but now you have the whole story.
