Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Local mayors wail and gnash teeth about State budget

Over at Cleveland.com today several local mayors whine and moan about the evil Governor Kaisich's proposed budget.

To our dismay, Willoughby Mayor Dave Anderson showed his true colors yet again. Sigh.

"Willoughby Mayor Dave Anderson, also a republican, said local mayors can't afford to be philosophical when their job is to patch streets, fix sewers, and provide emergency services."

Boo hoo, Mayor Anderson.  Boo hoo.

Perhaps you and your greedy, inefficient cohorts should have thought about that years ago.

Case in point.

Mayor Waster over in Willougbhy Hills and its City Council fooled just enough citizens into believing a tax increase was needed.  This was accomplished by lying about the projected carry over in the City's Budget.  Mayor Waster, Councilman Scamich, and the rest claimed only a $28, 000 carry over.  Woops!  A better than $400, 000 carry over was recorded.  It gets better.  Mayor Waster appointed a committee and had them do a performance audit of the City, AFTER the tax increase, to see where money could be saved.

Just crazy.

Returning to Dave Anderson--take Dave Anderson's Road to Nowhere; the City of Willoughby spent $5 million on roads and utilities to a development that never materialized.  Anderson has kept a City owned Golf Course and Municipal Airport: all major drains on the City Budget.

It get's worse.

Willoughby City Council pays about $19, 500 per year for the health insurance of several City Council members.

Take Jeff Black.  Councilman Jeff Black is an attorney with a private practice.  Perhaps he could pay his own health insurance?  That's 1/3 of a cop's salary.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Dave Anderson's Road to Nowhere--Now a road to Federal Court

Dave Anderson and the City of Willoughby have been overspending on Big Government for years.  Municipal golf courses, airports, and real estate speculation!

Back at the end of March Rick Osborne thought it would be a good idea to antogonize the Federal Government with an article blaming them for his inability to plan his real estate development project.

Ahhhh yes.  Dave Anderson chimed in trying to explain why he blew $5.4 million back in 2004 putting in infrastructure at the behest of Rick Osborne.  Steve Lie-tourette chimed in too--always eager to justify (to the donor)--what they were getting for that large donation.

Now the strong arm of the law!

The City of Willoughby and Rick Osborne were sued in Federal Court!  The gist of the suit is that The City and the Developer dumped excavated materials into wetlands.

What a waste.  $100, 000's in legal fees will be spent on top of the $5.4 million already dawn the sewer.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Brooklyn Raising Taxes a part of the Story

No one missed yesterday's headline: "Brooklyn losing American Greetings, its largest and most high-profile employer."

In recent days revelations of AG's largest shareholder's, the Weiss family, owning a stake in the Crocker Park Development which will be adjacent to the ne HQ have surfaced.

This undoubtedly played a role in the relocation of the HQ.  Furthermore, the dog and pony show and rhetoric about a move was clearly orchestrated to fatten up the move with corporate welfare.

However, Brooklyn's raising of City income taxes could not have helped.

Raising City income taxes were just the nail in the coffin.

Mayor Waster, Councilman Scamich, ..., local school boards and the like are not going to help the cause of a dying region by raising taxes to keep pay, benefits, bonuses and other perks coming to public employees.