Yesterday's Landmark described the official view of the "need" for new revenue sources as the Village Board sees it. I believe that shifting funds to another account and then claiming we urgently need to adopt Home Rule before we go below an arbitrarily defined threshold because it will enable us to have a Real Estate Transfer Tax seems a lot like trying to guess which shell covers the pea. This is starting to look exactly like the arguments that were previously presented regarding the "need" for a TIFF in order to enable the Board to pursue development through developer incentives so as to make the TOD study's conclusions a reality. We shelled out a helluva lot to get the VC and now more and more people are questioning whether we got an ugly pineapple or a giant lemon. If we hadn't handed out incentives and squandered hundreds of thousands on spurious projects and bogus consulting contracts we wouldn't be in this situation. By transferring funds from one account to another just to create a shorter fuse for the need for more revenue, and then spouting off about it's either Home Rule or a tax increase I think the Board has attempted to create the situation that will pressure the residents into supporting their referendum. We need a lot of people to come forth and present the other side, that is, that economies could be realized in our spending without the Village going to the dogs. This mad chase after grants that still obligate us to spend money we can ill afford to is a good example. For example, if we are so short of funds why do we pursue this "Plaza Makeover" for Centennial? I hope people who have looked at all these machinations and understand what is going on here will come forth and enlighten us - here in the Forum and through letters to the Landmark, and by speaking up at Public Meetings. THis train is rolling, and if we don't watch out we will give this Board and those to come a lot of extra powers they don't have and covet desperately. We better be careful - this can and probably will be a lot more costly than the TIFF fiasco was. Better get organized. Better wake up. This train is already rolling...
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Is this a shell game?
(1 post)-
Posted Thursday Dec 27, 2007 20:10 #
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