Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Take the Quiz!

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Don has a handy little quiz on the Richmond School Board v. Mayor Wilder follies.

You know, before folks get too wonkily agitated about imposing a new tax on city residents to handle water run-off, crab grass, the heartbreak of psoriasis, or whatever fresh crisis confronts River City, they ought to consider what our betters do with the money they already have.

In this case, the funds sure aren’t going into the classrooms. And given this prominent, ongoing, outrageous waste (which is saying something for Richmond) the mind boggles over the hijinks the city could indulge in with yet another new source of funds.

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3 responses to “Take the Quiz!”

  1. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Although I endorse the idea of imposing a storm-water management fee, I agree whole-heartedly that the City of Richmond and its school system have done nothing to earn the public trust or to ensure taxpayers that the storm-water revenues would be well spent. The city has a huge credibility problem.

  2. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    This IS.. the CORE governance question that begates the basic three basic political philosophies – liberal, conservative and libertarian.

    This is not about Wilder per se or the Richmond School Board per se as this same circumstance is replicated thousands of times across Virginia at the local level including the most recent GA-induced legal dilemma about Regional “governments”.

    It basically boils down to whether or not – you believe – you TRUST, someone whom you elected to represent you to take your money directly and/or appoint someone to spend it wisely for the specific purpose that was represented.

    And yes… if you don’t trust Wilder or the School Board or .. whatever Govt entity involved to spend your dollars not only wisely but for the purposes represented -then the easy answer is to never give them the money to start with … because it almost always will not be spent for the stated purposes and virtually always – not wisely.

    Further, either stop ANY future tax increases no matter what the stated purpose is AND to roll back taxes… at every opportunity …

    This is why folks fight against the taxes – not because they are opposed to “fixing” stormwater but because they see it as little more than a ruse to get more money to be spent in ways that are not agreed to or even if spent on the agreed purposes – done so in such a wantonly wasteful way as to border on fraud.

    Everyone gets harmed when trust in government erodes.

  3. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Which leads us to his latest quiz! :

    http://saverichmond.com/?p=395

    Take The Quiz: KNOW Your Downtown Boondoggle
    moments of civic brilliance, our social betters, sheer terror, number-crunching, politricks, something smells funny in here, shell game
    How well do YOU know Richmond?s longest-running downtown boondoggle? Do you have any idea where $8 million dollars in meals tax money went? Care to guess why it cost more than $20 million to tear down a building, leave a gigantic hole and then fill up the hole? Have you any clue where an additional $23 million of your tax dollars will soon be headed?

    Yes, I?m talking to you again.

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