High Livin' On The Public Dime

This week's Memphis Flyer has a John Branston report-itorial called "cadillac Plan." He rather lightly takes the City to task for spending $750,000 on a consulting contract for Riverfront development.

After first showing how the contract is rather far on the high end of such things, he then quotes from Barry Lendermon of the Riverfront Development Corporation to show that, well...maybe it's not. Branston's main point seems to be that the situation downtown is both good enough and variable enough that the contract appears to be a waste of money. Maybe.

It's weak-as-water complaining. Our city leaders are inordinately fond of boards, commissions, studies and groups. It shields them from anything unpleasant like unpopular decisions or hard choices while offering yet more public money to their friends and buddies and political cronies.

Why not have a central Department of Planning under the City Council, not the Mayor's Office? Their task is to create a large, generalized framework demarcating public areas, mapping out future street needs, labelling older buildings to save and repurpose, and zoning general intentions for various areas. Then stand back and let developers have at. Public monies shield developers from risk, yes, but private vigor and reaction speed will accomplish more, faster.

Until next time.

Tara Sue Reaches Critical Mass

Some weeks back, I wrote about Tara Sue Grubb, a North Carolina woman running a very long-shot campaign for Congress. You can read the weblog of her campaign here. You have to admire her spunk.

Well, her story has been picked up by Slashdot, a website for tech-heads and those interested in computer-related issues. Their concern? Tara Sue is running against Howard Coble, one of the Congressional sponsors of a bill that would grant sweeping powers of control and invasion to software makers and their parent companies.

Tara Sue has suddenly found her constituency going from a small rural district to a virtual one that encompasses some of the most successful and well-connected computer and Internet professionals in America. She's still likely to lose, but she's pointing the way to a new kind of campaign -- a web-driven one.

This is relevant to Tennessee because we are also seeing that revolution happen here. The Income Tax War, had it occured only a few years earlier, would have been lost without two serious advantages: the Internet and talk radio. Talk show hosts like Steve Gill and Phil Valentine took up the podium; Tax Free Tennessee and Tennessee Tax Revolt important information to every corner of the State. They uncovered truths no newspaper would have let you see and pulled it all together in an easy-to-find place. It was these two factors that welded together the force that descended on Capitol Hill, that is shaking up the electoral landscape as we speak.

For now, we have the advantage. We need to press it before the Powers That Be either take control or learn to use it themselves.

Until next time.

Nothing But Colors For Some

A USA Today story Friday, about the reaction of cities to the Homeland Security Department's color-coded warning system is not good news. They quote from a study done by the National League of Cities that produced distressing results.

The study doesn't break results out by city, but does have some interesting news. It's worth a quick read.

Until next time.

Empowerment-speak

This story, in Friday's Commercial Appeal, is about the report of the Memphis Civic Action Now! (Can) on a project led by The Community Forum, and the report they generated. This whole story is full of professional motivational jargon like "civic infrastructure...buy in...civic engagement" and the dreaded "dialog." The city spent an unknown sum of money for stuff like this:

Record said group members want to hold a civic expo next spring,
and to open a center for civic engagement.

The center would be a place "where citizens can come together
and discuss issues. It would be a place for local government
officials and government folks to come to people if they have an
idea and have dialog," she said.

The report, to be discussed at a press conference at 9 this
morning at the Memphis Cook Convention Center, also
recommends:

*Sponsoring regular small group civic discussions in every
neighborhood.

*Holding civic workshops throughout the city and county.

We already have all this. It's getting the political leaders to actually attend 'em that's the problem. Sadly, the study doesn't offer any answers there.

Until next time.

Spinning, Whirling, Twirling

The new "value-added" TCAP scores are in and once again it's bad news for Memphis City Schools. Try as they might, even the ever-resourceful Commercial Appeal can't spin this one into gold. It begins with the headline:

'Value-added' scores gauge student gains

Technically, this is a true statement, but it doesn't apply to MCS! They are still losing ground, as the report clearly shows. After writer Aimee Edmondson labors for eight paragraphs to soften the news and applaud effort we get to the nub:

Memphis's districtwide scores range from a disappointing 77
percent in language to 92 in social studies. The analysis is based
on how students scored on the Tennessee Comprehensive
Assessment Program achievement test. Shelby County's
value-added scores range from 107 percent in math to an
impressive 136 percent in reading.

But wait! It's not over yet. Yes, they know what's responsible:

Because the value-added scores are actually based on a
three-year average of the TCAP, Memphis remains stymied by
scores from 2000.

That was the year the district hit rock bottom on student
achievement tests.

"They were running in the mud in 2000," said education
researcher Steve Ross of the University of Memphis.

Those scores will fall off the radar with next year's three-year
averages.

"It takes a while to completely get out of that and run on hard
surface," Ross said.

That's right, it's the fault of two years ago. Damn that 2000!

Angry with standardized test scores that repeatedly and grimly show that our students are under-educated, year after year, educators devised the "value-added" system, purporting to show that students do learn, while hiding the fact that they don't learn as much as they ought to, that teachers continue to fail in the schools.

Created by then-University of Tennessee professor Bill Sanders,
value-added is meant to measure the "value" a teacher adds to
each student's performance - regardless of where that student's
achievement levels are.

In the ever-growing high-stakes testing world, more states are
following Tennessee's lead by instituting the value-added
system....

"Schools have to take children where they are academically and
move them as far as they can each year," said Education
Commissioner Faye Taylor. "Value-added results give us a
measuring stick for that progress."

And yet again, Memphis City Shcools fall short.

This link will take you directly to the cumulative results. As you'll see, Tennessee is performing above expected norms, and Shelby County Schools are performing very, very well. But Memphis City Schools are embarrassingly poor.

Once again.

Until next time.

Read Past The Headlines And You Find...

A Commercial Appeal story about action by the Tennessee Board of Regents to give raises has a headline that says one thing and a story that's something else altogether!

Regents vote today on proposed 2% raises, merit hikes for faculty

The Tennessee Board of Regents is expected
today to approve 2 percent across-the-board raises for faculty,
staff and administrators at its schools, including the University of
Memphis and Southwest Tennessee Community College.

Sounds good, if a bit meager. But then, money is tight this year, unless you're the Department of Transportation, or those travellin' Administration officials.

Dig a bit deeper into the story, though, and you learn this:

The committee also recommended increases for university
presidents and other administrators to bring their pay up to at
least 90 percent of what their peers receive.

U of M president Shirley Raines's proposed salary would go up 4
percent to $203,429, bringing her up to that 90 percent level.
Southwest president Nate Essex's salary would go up 2 percent
to $164,315, bringing him to 99 percent of his peers'.

The committee recommended approval of the salary hikes in a
continued effort to stop the exodus of faculty and staff from
Tennessee schools, where faculty salaries have been as much as
13 percent lower than at comparable schools in the region.

Wait. Faculty is 13% lower, but the top administrators are within 10%? Doesn't sound fair, does it?

At the U of M, the 2 percent raises and $1.2 million in merit raises
that would be doled out to some faculty would bring the average
faculty salary up to only 86 percent of their peers' salaries....

Raines said despite the school's "disappointing" salaries
compared to other schools, the university is seeing improvements
in faculty morale.

Not with actions like this they won't.

In all, more than $2.2 million in merit raises will be given to U of M
administrators, faculty and staff. Faculty members receive 55.4
percent of that money.

More than half? Sounds good, right? Well, with CA stories, it's always what's not said that carries the day. I suspect that faculty makes up more than 55% of the staff at the U of M, and with pay disparities (Custodians and service staff make less than professors, right?), it makes you ask "How's that kitty being divvied up?"

But don't look here for answers.

While we're on the subject of Tennessee higher education, I'll also direct you to South Knox Bubba's excellent post on UT President John Shumacher. I'm with him on this guy. I think he's gonna be great. But I'm still waiting to see how the folks around him act, especially with the intrusion of the private sector into the hallowed halls of academe. And will legislators see his initiatives as a good excuse to cut more UT money if they succeed? (SKB wants Schumacher to run for governor next time. I'd like to see Marsha Blackburn run. What a match-up, huh?)

Until next time.

Fords, Sopranos, Whatever

I'm not going to get into the Ford family's sprawling, lucrative stake on the public trough. It's just too much. Why someone hasn't optioned them for a miniseries, I don't know.

But today's Commercial Appeal has this story about State efforts to reclaim some of the money from the estate of James Ford that they claim was stolen from child-care center payments. It comes with the jaw-dropping headline:

State denied Ford's millions

Not "Judge blocks state money grab" or "Ford estate off limits, judge rules." No, the headline used says the paper has already found Ford guilty.

I'm no fan of the Fords, as you might guess. My belief is that James likely does have a lot of State money and deliberately kept sloppy books just to prevent -- or delay or obscure -- what's happening now. But still, the CA is unrelenting and bitter in their vendetta against this family.

Give the selective partisanship a rest sometime.

Until next time.

Hobbs On The Job

The latest Bill Hobbs post is about a Cato Institute report (requires Acrobat PDF reader) giving out-going governor Don Sundquist a failing grade for his term. It's very good reading and so's Hobb's commentary.

Until next time.

OK, Enough Already!

In the big feature on Page One of the Friday Commercial Appeal's Appeal section, about pianist/singer Barbara Bennet, the caption writer tells us four times in three photo captions and the sub-headline, that Barbara works for Pat O'Brien's in New Orleans/Beale Street. And it's in the first paragraph of the story.

Enough already!

Until next time.

Two Quickies Before He Goes

* Both Bill Hobbs and South Knox Bubba are on a blogging roll (a blogroll?) the past couple of days. Mucho good reading at both spots. Check the links at left.

By the way, if you know of any Memphis or Tennessee bloggers who cover area politics or events, please let me know of them so I can investigate. My new email (see post below for explanation) is halfbakeredATmyfastmail.com. Change the AT for the symbol to email.

* Our civic and political leaders, abetted by the newspapers, have been trying for years to make Memphis into a "world class city." What's going on downtown is an effort, funded by you the taxpayer, to turn it into a Manhattan on the Mississippi. The rest of the County can rot in sprawl and highways, but the downtown by gum is going to be something that will make everyone else think better of us than we do. Yes sirree.

Unfortunately, these clowns are running counter to most of the will of the people. I've always maintained that Memphis is a collection of strong neighborhoods that makes up a large town. Not a city and certainly not an Atlanta or New York. Go here for proof. Amazing.

Until next time.

The Alabama Strategy

The State is having money problems, especially in funding education to the satisfaction of the citizenry. A lottery is proposed as a solution. The supporters tout the Georgia HOPE program as a model. Religious folks express concern about the moral decline accompanying a lottery. "Everyone" says the lottery is a sure winner and that the religious concerns are just another gasp of the country-bumpkin Religious Right.

But come Election Day, the votes are counted and the lottery lost!

Is this a story and prediction for Tennessee? No, it's what happened it Alabama, back in 1999. To quote from this story:

...Alabama polls showed that 65 percent of the voters
supported a lottery referendum. But after an intense campaign
by anti-lottery forces, voters defeated it 54 to 46 percent.

Does that support number sound familiar? It's also interesting to note that the story mentions a lottery vote in North Carolina, where supporters are saying that a lottery will bring in -- are you ready? -- $300 million. Seems they have the same advisers that Sen. Steve Cohen does, although Cohen has taken to inflating his numbers of late.

There's another story, this one from the Knoxville News- Sentinel, about a visit from a leader of the Alabama fight.

Still only seeing sparse reporting from the Commercial Appeal on this potent, and divisive, story.

Until next time.

Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

Earlier this week, I covered the two Commercial Appeal stories (here and here) about the Tennessee Poll. The TP was commissioned by the Knoxville News-Sentinel and conducted by the Social Sciences Institute at UT-K. It touted an 8 point Bredesen lead and an 18 point Alexander lead. Noting the nature of the stories (they were reprints of KNS stories by Tom Humphrey), I went to the source and found that there was a third story! One that the CA neglected to highlight.

You can read that third KNS story here. The CA only ran an uncredited Associated Press story deep in the back of the Metro section -- not Page One, top-of-the-fold as the first two were. The AP story covers almost all the poll points in the KNS story: lottery, church attendance. Almost.

What the AP, and so the CA, failed to tell you was this:

On another question, 63 percent of those surveyed said a firearm is
present in their home and a similar 62 percent said that a member of
their family was a hunter and/or fisherman.

Gant said the percentage of homes with a gun was somewhat higher
than he would have anticipated.

As previously reported, the poll found Democrat Phil Bredesen held a
lead in the gubernatorial race while Republican Lamar Alexander led in
the Senate contest.

Gant said that those with guns were more likely to favor a Republican
candidate in a congressional race when a specific candidate was not
named.

A rather startling omission, wouldn't you say?

Now you see why the CA failed to run it. Shame on them.

Until next time.

The Thorp Test

Today's Commercial Appeal has the standard political-season story about how much the two major party gubernatorial candidates have raised so far this election cycle. I don't know why they run these things, as it's generally meaningful only to political junkies, but there you go.

Anyway, browsing the numbers (because, yes, I am a political junkie) it occured to me that I should apply Susan Adler Thorp's thinking to them! During the County Mayoral election she repeatedly and humorlessly pounded on George Flinn for funding his campaign with his own money. She claimed he was "buying" votes, although she could never quite explain the mechanism by which the votes were bought. I know I never received my check! And she also rakes him over the coals for the amount of money he spent. It's all very dire for her, but she assumes you know why and never bothers to outright explain things. Ah well....

So, looking at the Bredesen and Hilleary numbers, I have concluded that, by the SAT test, Bredesen is attempting to buy the election. He has raised $6.4 million and spent about $5.1 million so far. Hilleary has raised $4.7 million and spent about $4 million. Bredesen is outspending Hilleary by 25% -- nearly twice the Flinn-Wharton ratio! Not only that, but Hilleary has received contribututions from about 14,000 folks; Bredesen from only 11,000. So, Bredesen has the better-heeled contributors.

Clearly, he's the candidate of Big Money.

I look forward to the properly chastising column from Thorp soon.

Until next time.

I Hear Your Troubles

Here at Half-Bakered, I listen to your concerns and, eventually, address them. The email address at Crosswinds apparently isn't working for some, so I've gotten a new address for email.

If you have ideas, suggestions, links, comments, observations, critiques or good recipes for BBQ sauce you can now send them to: halfbakeredATmyfastmail.com. Just convert the AT to the symbol and you're off! I'll change the link on the left soon.

Until next time.

URL Round Up

* I've now added William Burton to the links list here at Half-Bakered. He's a very, very good writer (though he does use profanity, if that bothers you) who mostly covers national and international events, though like most Tennessee bloggers other things crop up. Go check him out.

* Carol Coletta hosts the radio program Smart City. As usual, I'm a day late in getting to her and the program, but here we go! Smart City has a website and a blog. Carol has a website, too, at her place of business. Ms. Coletta is a fearsomely active community facilitator and Smart City, while I do not always agree with its politics nor Coletta's, is essential listening for folks who want to know where this city is going and why. Very smart and very forward-looking, though also trendy in certain ways. It's on Sunday morning at 9:00AM on WKNO and on Tuesdays at 9:00AM on WYPL. Well worth a listen.

* Cooper-Young neighborhood has its own website! Who knew? It's mostly activism/community oriented, but still worth a visit. Change the ".com" to ".org" and you get a related though different site.

* I found a couple of reports that I hope to revisit soon, about smart urban growth and city planning. Neither is hard to read and both have lots to think about. The Austin (Texas) Statesman has a story on the "creative class," which is similar to the "talent magnet" idea the Memphis Flyer covered some weeks ago, which is a pet idea of Carol Coletta! Synergy! Seriously, it's part of an engrossing series called "City of Ideas." And the Brookings Institute did a study for Louisville, Kentucky, about its future. It has some very important ideas and lessons for Memphis. It's a longish read, but it will have you thinking about Memphis in new ways.

Until next time.

Get Out Your Waders

I suppose that after Sunday's remark by Susan Adler Thorp, calling some Christian conservatives the "Taliban wing of the Republican Party," I can be allowed to call the Commercial Appeal's Paula Wade the Goebbels of the daily paper, a hard-line propagandist willing to do whatever it takes to advance her agenda.

But no, let's not do that.

Tuesday's CA has an editorial by Wade in which she purports to show why both gubernatorial candidates, but especially Hilleary, won't be able to do any new spending without eviscerating TennCare. She paints a picture of a State with a budget squeaky-tight, with unalterable obligations, with poor people ready to die without TennCare. It's a careful construct designed to lead to her conclusion, but she lards it with assumptions she doesn't even question, or regard as questionable.

Wade apparently believes that since TennCare now exists and covers one-quarter of the State's population now -- something not envisioned by its designers -- any changes which threaten to throw anyone off are automatically bad. Wade recently did a series of articles that were largely informed by the supporters and dependents of TC and intended to support their positions. Wade has demonstrated many times over the past three years her unalterable support for the income tax and has recently shown a blind, unyielding lust for TC.

In the editorial, Wade devotes almost four times as much space to pasting Hilleary as she does to mildly chastising Bredesen. I originally started this post intending to go one direction -- her unequal treatment of the two candidates -- before I realized that the editorial served a deeper, more sinister purpose!

Take the time to go and reread the two Wade TennCare stories linked above. They are both horribly lop-sided and partisan. She only quotes supporting information from TC advocates, from the folks who will benefit either directly or indirectly from having TC. The usual "more government" Socialists. Nowhere does she use meaningful, dissenting, critical information; she doesn't even acknowledge the TennCare audit done by the State that clearly shows massive room for improvement. It's the document that's providing the blueprint for the reforms she's criticizing!

What Wade has done is to set herself up. She runs two stories that give her a base. Even though they are biased and untrue and emotionally manipulative (news stories, mind you), by having them in print she can act as though established, unbiased fact is now in evidence. She then proceeds, in the editorial, to use that false base to further her agenda -- preserving and expanding TC.

Think about it -- Wade is so partisan in her support of TC that she ignores the audit, ignores the critics of TC, ignores the fraud and abuse that's glaringly obvious. She's so afraid of anyone touching any part of TC that's she's willing to let us pay for unknown numbers of fraudulent recipients. Complain, and she'll accuse you of sending the sick into the streets to die.

She's one scary woman. She reminds me of this C.S. Lewis quote:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may
be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons
than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty
may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but
those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for
they do so with the approval of their conscience.

Wade is tyrannical.

Until next time.

But Still, There's No Money To Save There

As Paula Wade argued above, there's no savings to be had from TennCare. No, none at all.

Then there's this story from today's Commercial Appeal to refute her. Ah well.

The state mental health department has entered into $71.4 million in
noncompetitive consulting contracts, paying "excessive fees" for work
that state employees could have done for less, Democratic
gubernatorial candidate Phil Bredesen charged Tuesday in Memphis.

Use of such contracts is "clearly out of control'' and Bredesen said it
reflects a failure of leadership and unwise use of taxpayer dollars at a
time of budget crisis.

He cited Rick Campbell, who with his wife, Colleen Reynolds, have been
paid $2 million for consulting work in the Arlington Developmental
Center court case over the past six years.

Bredesen noted the state is paying Campbell $265,000 a year, eight
times the pay of the average Tennessee state worker. The long-term
use of such consultants is "inexcusable," Bredesen said, promising
changes if elected governor.

Of course, when Hilleary made similar, if vaguer, claims, Wade made him out as someone who wanted to throw sick people into the street to die. It will be interesting, to say the least, to see Wade finesse Bredesen's claims.

Tennessee Finance Commissioner Warren Neel said most of the
contracts result from court orders against state mental health facilities.

Neel said Campbell was recommended by then-governor George W.
Bush, who said Campbell had done a "superb" job for Texas in a similar
lawsuit.

The charge in the first paragraph comes from the advocates of TennCare who want to use the courts as a cudgel to make TennCare meet every conceivable need they can squeeze in, the same people that Wade quotes with po-faced dishonesty. The second paragraph? Hmmm...Republican Governors (Sundquist, Bush), presidential campaign, favors, and the story in the next post. Don't think this is more of the same, do you?

Lucrative contracts have not gone to friends of the administration, but to
people who can perform jobs required by court order, Neel said.
Competitive fees must be offered to obtain the most qualified people, he
added.

Yeeeeeaaaaaah, right. I'm not disbelieving. No, not at all.

I'm sure the CA will get around to investigating this. Yes I am.

Until next time.

Took 'Em Long Enough

The story that Nashville Channel Five's Phil Williams has been all over for weeks now, that Bill Hobbs has reported on and Tax Free Tennessee has spread, finally makes it to the back sections of the Commercial Appeal.

Of course, the story of insider contracts and possible corruption by Governor Don Sundquist -- one that cause the Governor to escape by the back exit at a recent speech -- make a small story in the back of the Metro section, from the Associated Press and not one of their several Nashville reporters, but still, it's a start.

A late and limp start, but a start.

Until next time.

A Proper Ending

Half-Bakered is an animal lover. He has had various pets over the years and loved many more. When we last covered the subject of the City stopping incineration of dead pets in favor of cheaper landfill burial, the simple solution was instantly obvious -- raise the fee.

Well, as the Commercial Appeal reports, that finally happened. As they report, the fee will double, to fifteen dollars. A small cost to repay years of love and grant a respectful end.

It's disappointing that it took so long to realize and enact.

Until next time.

The Crone Speaks

Well, it seems ol' Susan Adler Thorp has found a new hobby horse -- smart growth, or urban sprawl, or just plain sprawl. In her latest column she starts with AC Wharton and then slips over to her newest civic shortcoming.

People who start out like this should be watched like a hawk:

You don't need me to remind you how worrisome life can be now that
you're our mayor. You've been in office only 18 days, but I'm beginning
to get concerned about your administration.

Far be it from me to dish out advice....

And yet she starts right in, after a brief detour into some old favorites:

You won election by nearly a 2-to-1 margin over
your opponent - a doctor who spent $1 million of his own money trying
to defeat you. But it didn't work, mostly because he was a political
novice and you had a 20-year record as a proven leader.

Gee, that's funny. During the election, you spent nearly no time at all discussing Wharton, except in direct comparison to Flinn's shortcomings. You couldn't be bothered to tout him, only bash Flinn.

What is it that bothers you about that $1 million? Is it that Flinn has it? By all accounts, even your own, he's a very nice man who came by his money through honest, hard work. Jealousy, maybe? Is it the total amount? Wharton spent nearly $900,000, but that didn't seem to concern you. Thorp tried to state the "truth" that Flinn was "buying" the election, but she never was able to make the case by showing us how. Doesn't matter, just keep repeating the charges and they'll slowly accrete.

Apparently, SAT's concerned that Wharton is moving too slowly in assembling and directing his new administration. She seems to fear that he'll lose the opportunity of his "post election honeymoon," that period when happy post-election expectations can be used to prod agendas into action. She fears he's squandering his. But then, speed isn't a Wharton characteristic. Look how long it took him in the campaign to respond to the allegations from Flinn! He's a deliberate man, as suits a lawyer.

Who's going to be the chief administrative officer you promised to
appoint? You apparently haven't found one yet, and that's not good.

The CAO should be in charge of the county's day-to-day operations.
He's the go-to guy, the one who tells your department heads what to do
every day while you're shaking hands in Boxtown and Germantown. You
call the shots and he steers the ship.

That would be Jim Kelly, whom SAT declines to name. Why? Of course, out-going Mayor Rout's top aide, Ed Jones, is suspended right now for the credit card "crisis," otherwise Wharton could depend on the multi-mayor veteran. Maybe Wharton's just waiting to see who survives?

Since being a politician is a new role for you, here's a tip: There are
perils to being lethargic about your appointments. First, you send the
signal that you weren't ready on Day One. That's disappointing.

See? She's reneged on her earlier promise about advice.

While you're still on your honeymoon with voters, take advantage of it
and get that smart-growth plan going. Even the developers don't want to
criticize you while the public's still buoyant about your election.

Suburban sprawl has become a tradition in this county, but it's driving
up the county's debt. There's no such thing as real growth in this county.
People just move from here to there. The previous administration called
it growth.

It has all been a get-rich plan for developers. They build expensive
projects that require taxpayers to provide them with new roads and
parks and sewers and schools.

Make it clear now that you will support only suburban growth that's
sustainable - growth that will pay for itself. Taxpayers will love you for
it.

Ahhh...see? I warned you that "smart growth" would surface soon after the election and here's SAT warning Wharton to get on the stick.

But notice SAT's new-found religion on developers! I can't recall her -- or anyone at the CA -- really going after developers (and realtors and bankers) up to now. It's too dangerous. They control a lot of money and a lot of people and a lot of politics. Some well placed calls and your paper's ad revenue dries up like the fall leaves.

SAT is disingenuous anyway. Our whole tax structure for the City is built on insane growth in the County. It's a giant Ponzi scheme, to keep new suckers coming into the City tax coffers to stay just ahead of obligations that annexation creates. If we suddenly began to slow growth, it would be disastrous. And if we began to improve properties in the center city and the Parkway loop, the neighbors would still be stuck with a higher property tax bill thanks to the improvements!

Yes, in principle smart growth is a great idea. But to drastically lurch this area into it would cause budget problems the like of which we haven't seen yet.

Given SAT's other propensities, and those of her paper-mates, one must suspect that the control that necessarily comes with growth plans is what they really want, to enact their plans for making people behave the "best" way.

Until next time.