Monopoly Money And Baseball Diamonds
The scene that unfolded was nothing short of dumbfounding when Charlotte city staff recommended giving $9 million to the Charlotte Knights to help pay for the team’s proposed uptown stadium:
Council member LaWana Mayfield asked how board members should respond if residents ask whether their taxes are going up to pay for baseball.
No, Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble said. Instead he said part of the money is coming from new tax dollars generated by future construction in the area. The rest would come from a tourism tax, primarily paid by visitors.
Dissembling as part of his job requirement, Kimble toes the party line: Taxpayers don’t pay taxes, and never tell them they do. This is the typical sentiment pushed by the statists and corporatists who run our government, whom the people have elected and who are allowed to take the taxpayers’ money for their own purposes.
Councilmember Mayfield should not even have to ask the question. Of course taxes will be higher than they would be if you spend $9 million. Money is fungible – being of such a nature that one part or quantity may be replaced by another equal part or quantity in the satisfaction of an obligation.
The fact is if the money is spent on the Knights, the taxpayers paid for it. If city staff can recommend the money be spent there, why, oh why are they asking for a tax increase and not a decrease? The answer is their attitude about money, taxpayers, and themselves.
Let us be clear. City staff, in collusion with a majority of city council, the Chamber of Commerce and likeminded corporatists, has been using taxes, taken from the taxpayer under false pretenses, to overpay themselves and to waste on projects to entertain themselves and their friends. The list is lengthy. City Fair, while probably not the beginning, indicated the attitude of the city towards the taxpayer: “We’ve got taxing authority. The taxpayers have money. We want this project. Let’s take the money from the taxpayers to pay for it.”
And why should they not, because the results are in. Unlike the private sector, where failure results in lost jobs, bad credit or bankruptcy, and someone is held responsible; when something the corporatists do goes bust, the authorizing party is NEVER held responsible. It’s like children playing monopoly. They lose and start the game over. No harm to them; their parents (read taxpayers) still feed them, clothe them, give them spending money, a car to drive, and a place to sleep. So why should they not waste the taxpayers money on their personal projects?
This is the problem. The corporatists, all those who belly up to the public trough seeking a free ride, want the taxpayers to pay for their private entertainment and well being.
For years city staff has abided by the political formula that Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble regurgitates. So let us paraphrase what he says to Councilmember Mayfield: “Tell the taxpayers anything you wish, just don’t tell them the truth. We want them to think we care about them and the money they give us to waste. So tell them something that sounds plausible, just so long as you vote for more money for us to waste on a another project, which, if it fails, the taxpayers will pay for and nobody will be held responsible.”
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