city council gives away your money
tommy permalink | categories: city, economy, government, law enforcement, politics, tampaby tommy @ 10:16 am
St. Pete Times Editorial - Tampa’s firefighters are asking too much
Tampa Tribune Editorial - City Council That Won’t Say No Falls Over Self To Spend Even More:
Mayor Pam Iorio offered the [firefighters'] union a 6.5 percent average raise, a generous offer in tough economic times. Even a magistrate who scrutinized the impasse said the city’s offer was fair and in the public’s best interest.
But the union wanted an average 10 percent increase and so brought its case to a bigger body of politicians, the city council.
All seven members caved.
Led by tax-and-spend liberals John Dingfelder and Mary Mulhern, the council gave firefighters what amounts to a 9.5 percent annual increase.
… Their largesse will cost taxpayers an extra $730,000 this fiscal year, and an extra $2.2 million if the contract is extended to two years.
And they call this a compromise?
No wonder property-tax statements that recently hit area homes show so little downward movement. The city’s bleeding-heart council has never met a spending proposal it didn’t like. The only time it has said no was when former councilman Shawn Harrison suggested a tax cut. The city had too many unmet needs, members cried at the time.
Taxpayers will be hit hard by the council’s capitulation because word is out that if the mayor shows fiscal restraint in negotiations - a stance for which she will pay a political price - unions should appeal to city council, where anything goes.
… Tampa’s city council has demonstrated an appalling lack of concern for the financial burden it places on taxpayers. Only Councilman Charlie Miranda seemed to understand that the city cannot afford to keep boosting salaries to unrealistic levels. But given how the others were leaning, Miranda made the vote unanimous. A protest vote would have been preferable.
Dingfelder and Mulhern fail to understand that times are tough. Residents are struggling to make ends meet. Private sector jobs are disappearing. So are tax revenues. Tampa’s recurring property tax-revenues have dropped $28 million over the past two years.
Yet council shot down the mayor’s attempt to kill a convoluted step-plan pay system that in addition to a merit pay increase, gives firefighters a second raise of between 1.2 percent and 19.5 percent a year based on seniority.
Know anyone in the private sector getting that kind of boost?
Council members only wanted to applaud the firefighters, as Councilman Joe Caetano did, for “working their butt off.”
Taxpayers also work their butt off and are struggling to endure a devastating economic downtown. They don’t have time to pack council chambers like the firefighters did. They deserved better.
Instead, council members recklessly inflated the city’s financial obligations to curry favor with a union whose endorsement, as Dingfelder bluntly put it, “we love” to get “on our campaign literature.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how government works.
To get the endorsement of a politically powerful union, Dingfelder, Mulhern and the bunch picked your pocket.
The next election for Tampa City Council is not until 2011. All seven of them assume (and hope) you will forget this by then.
“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how government works.”
Other Links:
Tags: Charlie Miranda, election '11, Gwen Miller, John Dingfelder, Joseph Caetano, linda saul-sena, Mary Mulhern, remember, tampa city council, Thomas Scott
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August 29th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
You het the Nail on the Head with this one: “tax-and-spend liberals John Dingfelder and Mary Mulhern”
Dave
August 29th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
“All seven members caved.
Led by tax-and-spend liberals John Dingfelder and Mary Mulhern…”
I suppose the other 5 are fiscal conservative conservatives?
IMHumbleO I’d prefer teachers get this money but issues aside, why do you reprint partisan dribble like this?
August 29th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Tiny makes a good point, why are liberals labeled tax and spend when conservatives are just as bad. Actually, they are worse, because they end up borrowing money to pay for services that we end up paying for later, with interest!
August 29th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Hey tiny - Leaving aside the point that you frequently post “partisan dribble” on your site, and leaving aside the point that you haven’t complained when I have printed “partisan dribble” about conservatives, and leaving aside that you are picking out a single line out of the entire opinion piece to whine about, from my viewpoint, the rhetoric is accurate in this instance.
I want to rid local government of stupidity, not Republicans, and not Democrats.
Partisan whining (such as yours) stifles all manner of discussion, which IMHumbleO is killing democracy.
Having said that, I’d truly love to hear you defend City Council’s ACTIONS (feel free to separate the parties for this UNANIMOUS vote) without whining about adjectives.
August 29th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I can defend their actions.
Firefighters deserve a raise. Tampa firefighter pay is not competitive with surrounding areas which makes it hard to recruit and retain firefighters.
Low wages leads to incompetency. If we want Tampa to attract new businesses (which means more jobs, more tax dollars) we need to have strong infrastructure. We need to make sure our firefighters, teachers, and other public service workers are competent. Higher wages are not the only way, but definitely a step in the right direction.
Does anybody really buy the boogeyman of the tax-and-spend liberal anymore? I thought that sort of political currency went out with “I like Ike.”
Would you rather have contractors protect our homes and businesses? As we’ve seen over the last eight years, and the astonishing escalation of contractors doing government, public service jobs, costs go up and efficiency goes down.
If anything the city council didn’t give the firefighters enough of a raise.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Oh, and they’re not “giving away” your money. They were elected into office to make these sorts of decisions. Tax money is raised and representatives decide how to spend it.
If you don’t like the decisions your representatives are making you organize and elect new representatives. Or, you make a persuasive case for why they should decide otherwise.
The op-ed you cite makes no argument, but is a pejorative-laden attack piece. “Tax-and-spend liberals” even though it is precisely the role of government to raise taxes and spend them. This is not a liberal or a conservative issue. Both Republicans and Democrats have proven to be effective money managers in different times and places, and both have been poor money managers. The ability to manage money is not rooted in political ideology.
The council didn’t “come to a reasoned conclusion” the council “caved.” This BS rhetoric from someone who can’t make a reasoned argument for their position.
It’s a “bleeding-heart council,” because presumably someone willing to put their life on the line to save your life and property isn’t worth diddly-squat.
And remember, this “devastating economic downturn” is rooted in the taxcut-and-spend policies of so-called fiscal conservatives.
And, taxpayers have time to pack the city council. To say otherwise is simply a lie. Maybe, just maybe, taxpayers (and I am one of them) applaud the city council level-headed commonsense efforts to make this a better place to live by making sure, as we enter the long drought months, we have reliable public servants to come to our assistance when we need them.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I agree with Dave. Firefighters and cops go to work every day knowing it could be their last, to rescue and aid citizens who bitch about paying their salaries. Generally speaking, public service (fire/rescue/LEO) have been underpaid for a long time. I don’t begrudge their raises, even though times are tough.
Yes we can find egregious examples of crooked cops and bad firefighters, but overall these men and women are genuinely committed to help, and they deserve every nickel they get.
August 30th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
awfully thin skinned of you Tommy, but anyway, I refer you to my dribbly friends Dave and Meredith.
Peace.
Vote.
t…
September 1st, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Finally, someone who understands that the City Council does not spend money like it is their own, instead liberally spend money that we give them. Once, I would enjoy seeing government (City or County) run the operation as if it were a business holding them accoutable for the profit and loss each month, without an endless insurgence of money by raising taxes. I for one, will never forget this misgiving. I am terribly disappointed in Tom Scott, especially. I expect this action from Dingy and Mull but the good Reverend Scott knows better.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Hey when the Council took this ridiculous vote, running over Mayor Pam in the process (with a great big red truck at that), did Tio Miranda tell any stories about how they used pumper trucks when he was a boy and how he slid down the firehouse pole a time or two? Any of y’all who are thinking about running against any of these bozos in the next three years oughta start campaigning now.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:12 am
[...] city government still hasn’t addressed their spending problem either, and continues to give out money like it’s water air. [...]