Thursday, May 28, 2020

More Balls Than A Pool Hall

Sometimes you find yourself gobstopped by the sheer nerve coming out of city halls. A pandemic not only doesn't push the mute button it turns the volume all the way to eleven. The AJC deflects and defends with a headline indicating "DeKalb cities want cut of county's federal aid" when in fact the DeKalb Municipal Association wants to give the county 25 cents and spread the rest around to cities based on population. Mighty, well, gracious of them, isn't it? No mention of the common taxation principal of "means adjustment" that always seems to apply to individual taxpayers.

Nancy Jester raised the only voice of reason suggesting that these monies are not the CEO's personal slush fund and that county money should be spent on county priorities with the input and oversight of the county commissioners. That IS why we elect them. Isn't it funny how common sense seems so obvious when stated so clearly?

The mayors on the other hand...well let's just say there is more than enough hypocrisy in that group to last until the next pandemic. These are the folks that have taken properties off the tax rolls, starving the county and our schools, taking increasingly suspect PILOT payments all so they can cozy up to wealthy developers. Now they want to dip into our tax dollars, taking the lion's share, in order to help out their colleagues and bosses in the business community. None said it better than Dunwoody's own:
"The slower we react the fewer businesses are gonna be left for us to support, because once they close their doors it's gonna be really hard for them to come back."
A clear statement of policy. The role of Dunwoody is to support businesses, no matter what they do to your quality of life, no matter that they disrespect the community you built and disregard any ordinances or norms established in this city. Because the mayor is on their side, not yours.