Rad Field
                             

07/11/02  Running a campaign looks easy from the outside.

Whenever someone calls for a referendum or a recall, I just sigh because there is no way they know what all is involved.  

Another topic was going to be today's edition, but yesterday I got to hear the City Manager NOT ANSWER a list of questions sent to him in advance and last night I was reading Jim Schutze and realized this is more urgent.

You might want to stop and read Schutze's column first, so you have a little more context of the issue -- but come right back.

Schutze  Taxpayers, Arise! BY JIM SCHUTZE A little-known chapter of the city charter says we don't have to take it anymore

Don't tell me we can't fight City Hall. . . .  Buried in our crusty, time-dishonored city charter (the local version of the constitution) is a very nice little political bombshell that you and I might have fun setting off under certain people's desks.   I'm talking about...KABOOM! . . .     Now, there are just a couple of other little wrinkles I need to toss in before I get to my bomb. For starters, I think the council will go for the highest tax hike--or higher--because of the composition of the council. . . .   we did see a certain alliance form on the $43 million-for-billionaires thing. . . .  . the south-of-the-river bloc, who had been promised contracts and other goodies from the billionaires and who figure that the tax burden is mainly paid for by the North Dallas middle class anyway .. . .   rich social climbers and favor-curriers who figure that the tax burden is mainly paid for by the North Dallas middle class anyway, so who cares?   Each side has its own sacred cows and cash cows: . . .  $2.5 million to keep the doors open at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, with a much bigger hit ahead when the cosmopolite crowd sticks the taxpayers for operating expenses at the new performing arts center. . . .     Da bomb! . . .  Initiative and Referendum. It's in our charter.  . . .  They have to call an election on it. It's the law. . . . 10 percent of the city's "qualified" voters to force a referendum. I checked, and that would be about 60,000 signatures, according to the last election results. You have to notify the city secretary you're going to circulate petitions, and then you have 60 days to get it done.

Schutze has a lot to say in his column, but you can imagine my disappointment when "Da bomb" turned out to be a referendum where we only have to get about 60,000 signatures in 60 days.  For that to work, we would need to have people at the polls on July 27th with petitions in  hand to sign up voters -- that would have to be every polling place in Dallas or Schutze might accuse the petition gathers of closet racism.

Call me petty, but I haven't forgotten his article where he accused the It's Bad Deal!! campaign of being racists because we did not have the manpower to walk neighborhoods in South Dallas or anywhere else -- because we didn't have the financial resources to hire "leaders" and furnish them with "walking around money" in South Dallas or anywhere else .  We did a citywide campaign that was solely telephoning from our own homes and 3 mailings -- to every frequent voter in every precinct all over the city.  We had over 300 people on the phones.  Probably over 100 building and distributing signs.  Just co-ordinating all that was incredibly time-consuming.

Schutze suggests that Lorlee Bartos or Pat Cotten organize his hoped for taxpayer revolt/referendum.  Haven't talked with Lorlee, but Pat Cotten told me this morning "It would take more money than anybody has to get me to do that."  Lorlee Bartos co-ordinated the anti-Trinity Bond-doogle campaign, and it would be amazing if she would do another freebie of that scale.

In Laura Miller's mayoral campaign, I just co-ordinated the phoners and didn't get to bed before 2 or 3 am for weeks.  

No matter how much a voter may want something to happen -- 29 out 30 voters want someone else to make that something happen.  Of the 1 out of 30 who will actually do something, you have to divide that number again by 10 as to who will take a big assignment or finish their first assignment.  Assuming that 60 or so people could collect 60,000 signatures is wishful thinking on the level of being chemically enhanced.

Ask the police and firefighter unions how easy it is to collect signatures and verify them even when you have a big citywide election going on where you can stand outside the polling places and grab real voters.  

Even if you get the petition signatures, you have to get people to the polls.  You have to remind them there's an election -- that takes telephone calls and mailings -- that takes time and money.   

Ask the police and firefighter unions about going up against an opposition campaign well-financed with ODB money.

The ODB (Our Downtown Betters) will spend as much as necessary to continue soaking Dallas taxpayers to fund their pet projects.   The ODB are not necessarily Dallas residents.  Some of the most powerful people in this city are not Dallas residents.  As a friend pointed out, they do pay taxes in Dallas if they own property or operate a business in our city limits.  True, but they have chosen to live elsewhere where the property taxes on their homes are spent in ways that make their community more livable -- like on smooth streets, good salaries for cops and firefighters and manicured parks and medians.

The ODB go home at night to their nice neighborhoods, but Dallas taxpayers are left with White Elephants we can't afford -- like the Meyerson which Schutze correctly notes COSTS DALLAS TAXPAYERS over $2.5 Million per year.  Former Councilman Jerry Bartos used to say it was over $3 Million.  Hey, what's $2 or $3 Million?  Just a whole bunch of city employees who could keep their jobs and not be looking at salary cuts.

Instead of selling or moving WRR down the dial for a few million, we ought to sell the Meyerson.  Even if we give the new owners a lifetime tax exemption, it would costs us less than what it costs us now.  After all, the Meyerson is not on the tax rolls and it costs us at least $2.5 Million a year.  Another smart friend asked if I thought the Meyerson was under utilized.  It is, but it has to be.  The wood veneer and the acoustics could not survive if the masses were having many events in the Meyerson -- not to mention the upholstery.  The Meyerson was not built as a community facility, we just get to pay for it.

Don't get me wrong, I would not oppose a tax rollback referendum, but what good would it do?  The ODB would spend whatever it took to kill the effort.  If you think the vote fraud in South Dallas was bad in the arena election, or the Trinity election or in Larry Duncan's contest with Dead Brain, you just cannot imagine the illegal activity that would be in motion to defeat any tax rollback referendum.  

Can't you see the ODB's mailers?  Children in the street because they have no home without city hall subsidies.  Old people sitting on the curb surrounded by their raggedy furniture because there's no city money to help them pay their rent.  The opposition would paint all the people behind the tax rollback referendum as affluent old white guys sitting under their shade trees in their great big front yards drinking a mint julip while somebody mowed their lawn and  trucks were lined up to deliver their most recent shopping purchases.  You think I'm kidding? 

Don't forget those sailboats on the Trinity that Con Jerk/Ron Kirk and his Large White Shadow put out to the voters!

A tax rollback referendum is not the answer.  It's new people at city hall.  We have got to clean house -- both elected and appointed officials.  The City MisManager is so deep over his head that it is impossible to expect him to find any solutions.

An easy place to go for money -- all those millionaires who have not met the terms of their tax abatements.  Make them pay us back!

Two firefighters told me why we can't close down any fire stations -- it's all about insurance premiums -- your and my insurance premiums.  Insurance rates are set on "response time".  If a house is too far from a fire station, or the city gets too slow in responding to fires, the insurance premiums go up.  Same thing happens if the police officers can't timely respond to our calls for assistance.  Boy, that made me stop in my tracks.  My property taxes are deductible.  My insurance premiums are not.

We need retail -- retail like Wal-Mart and Target -- not upscale stores where most Dallasites cannot afford to shop, not more hotels or office buildings.  We need more land on the tax rolls - not more tax abatements for projects that will not generate new property tax revenue but will put new demands on our infrastructure.  We need more conventions -- but we have killed that cash cow on the alter of the Hicks/Perot arena.

People who travel tell me every city has the same "tourist taxes" that we have.  So?  Wouldn't we get more conventions if it were cheaper here to convene and party hearty than in Las Vegas -- where it's a lot more fun?

There has been a dramatic drop off in our convention business since the arena sales tax was imposed.  Don't blame it on 9/11 because it was happening long before that tragic day.

We can't continue to plan our economy around entertainment or tourist revenue.  Look at the mess Arlington is in today.

	Low tourism straps Arlington's budget 07/11/02
Arlington's billion-dollar tourism and travel industry is sagging this year, and the cash-strapped city is probably going to have to dip into its reserves to bail out the struggling convention center fund.

At least Arlington has some reserves to dip into.  We have been spending borrowed money.  I asked the City MisManager if the plan that Mayor PreTend Poss is proposing will not just encumber the next 3 city councils.  She proposes a 6-year bond program.  He responded that it would not if the economy improves - but it would limit future borrowing power if the economy stays flat.  

One of the writers on Undergroundcops.com said "when the economy was good, the city never offered squat....now that it's tough, they want their money back....oh please...."  He was talking about the idea of the cops and firefighters postponing their 5% raise if there is assurance that no civilians will be cut or have their pay cut.  As noble as that might be, there is no assurance such a sacrifice would be spent on civilian staff.  I guarantee you Beat that Indictment Fantroy could find better ways to spend it than on city employees.

Schutze is right about the mindset of taxing North Dallas.  About the only change you would see in the Palladium vote split from a new tax increase would be Alan Walne and Mary Poss and possibly Ed Oakley.  Mary Poss is running for mayor -- no doubt about it.  She is making breakfast meetings all over town in full stage make-up.  She is not going to vote for a tax increase.

Speaking of her mayoral aspirations, I am so hoping MPT Poss will try to go for the Black vote that went with Tom Dunning.  

I don't know the answer to our current economic problems.  I know what caused the situation.  I know several people on this council were there for Hicks and Perot and share the blame for this mess.

Let's not waste our energy on any referendum.  We have a school board election coming up on July 27th.  Vote for Ken Zornes (Dist 1), Jack Lowe (Dist 2), Joe Mir (Dist 3), Linda Wilkerson (Dist 5), Rafael Anchia (Dist 7), Mike Martinez (Dist 8) and either Brent Brown (Dist 9).  Start cleaning house at the DISD. 

Can't do much about the Commissioner's Court.  City council races are just 10 months away.  

Even if we have been voting every month this year, get your rear to the polls and vote.  That's where  your efforts count most.  The fewer people who vote, the more important is your vote.


Wishful thinking will not get things fixed.