Woods on the Small Sum of Mayoral Ambitions

Jeff Woods adroitly dissects the Mayor's State of Metro speech:

Dean congratulated Maplewood High, arguably Tennessee's worst school academically, for losing the state championship football game. (The Panthers "outplayed all but one other class 4A football team in the state last year," Dean gushed.) And he recognized a couple of cops for fixing a family's flat tire last Thanksgiving. We're not making this up.

There was nothing in the speech about the central issue confronting Dean's administration: how hard it will be for Metro to raise enough revenue to provide the same level of services in the future because of the 2006 charter amendment that requires public approval of property tax rate increases. In fact, Dean pretended it'll only take "smart fiscal management" to overcome these little pesky money problems we're facing now.

"Although times are tight," the mayor said, "we know that will not always be the case." That's reassuring.

So, what? We wait for the winds to change rather than locating a star to steer by?


UPDATE: Compare to the Nashville City Paper's pander piece on the speech. It reads like it was written by Janel Lacy.