Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!!!

Or, Living With the Consequences of Yesterday's Local Election

Apparently, enough people harbor the belief that we can do all these simultaneously:

1. Wipe out 1/2 of city revenue in Fairbanks by capping the mil at .5 mils
2. Make enactment of a sales tax a voter-approved action not available until the next general election in 2007
3. Have the City of Fairbanks provide in any meaningful way any of the services that we have generally assumed that municipalities provide: the cop shop, fire protection/EMS, snow removal, etc.
   

I don't know, maybe there is a tiny workshop in North Pole where tiny, non-unionized, illegal immigrant elves will spin gold from used straw?*

The cop shop has been working without a new contract for over a decade. They have a total of three detectives working for the ENTIRE city. So what happens if a homicide happens? All those cops will be working the homicide, forget about investigating anything else, like, say, the recent rash of burglaries. And, I must point out that the city hasn't been honoring the old contract anyway, really, because they haven't been funding what they agreed to... I mean for chrissake, until last year, the cops had to buy the tires for their own patrol vehicles.

Perhaps it'll be like my hometown, way back East, where it is not uncommon to have an hour wait on a 911 call.

Oh well, this bit of fiscal folly comes to you courtesy of folks like the one quoted in today's Fairbanks Daily News Minus:
"Proposition 3 sponsor Nelson Miles applauded the results of his initiative. He suggested the elimination of the city’s property taxes will encourage more borough residents to start to move inside the city limits over the next few years. It’s just a positive thing for the people in the city,” Miles said."

What? You think my cash-strapped, waterless self is going to move into the city? Now???

And, just consider for a moment the tax revenue which the voters have just pissed away in the form of that box store complex on the east end of town, which is inside city limits and would have been subject to the old property tax rate.

*With all the dog lots around here, if this is the case, I stand corrected and we merely need await a budget surplus. Apologies for the fractured fairy tale/political metaphor. The coffee just ain't doing it! [Edited on 10-4 because of stupid Blogger font issues.]