Thursday, June 29, 2006

One of the More Vexing Results of the Metro Council Budget Process

My Council member, Ludye Wallace, is going to get $50,000 in discretionary funds to spend on his pet projects. Why? Because,
the council created a $1.95 million discretionary fund that members could use to pay for infrastructure improvements in their districts, nonprofit agency grants or other needs the council has not yet defined.
I learned from watching the budget and finance discussions that the fund comes from past years' delinquent property taxes collected this year.

I am troubled that the conservative horde hypocritically accepted the windfall funds rather than each committing to return their share to taxpayers, which would be consistent with their proclaimed anti-tax values. I am bothered that Charlie Tygard did not use his $50,000 to fund his Habitat Love-In Project. But most of all I am anxious that Ludye Wallace--who allegedly trades votes for alleys and lost $2,000 while visiting constituents in a gambling house social club--is running around with $50,000 to spend on his pet projects. God help us all in District 19.

2 comments:

  1. Metro Council has never impressed me as being ideologically inclined, but if they are, I would wager the vast majority are registered Dems. What's the basis for calling them a conservative horde?

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  2. Some of them will claim they are dems. But the majority are very conservative when it comes to social issues. And now, more than a third have openly aligned themselves with the republican party. The liberals are in the minority by a huge margin.

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