Dallas is Kirked

08/15/02 Con Jerk left Dallas in Shambles

Have you been to a budget townhall meeting yet? Check the schedule for the next one near you. The first one of the season was Ed Oakley's District 6 meeting Monday night, 8/12/02. The citizens were ready for bear, and Asst. City Manager Jill Jordan had her hands full, and she did a masterful job.

Several items in the meeting handout "City Manager's Proposed Budget" jumped out at me from page 2 under "Some Budget Shortfall Issues":

· Sales tax revenues declined $29.6 M
· Gas and electric franchise revenues down $6.6 M
· Telecommunication franchise revenues down $2.8 M

DallasArena.com frequently reminds you that Ron Kirk's arena sales tax on hotel/motel rooms and daily car rentals has been detrimental to our convention business. The loss in convention bookings and business has certainly put a damper on our sales tax revenue. Stan Aten agrees.

You know what is more interesting about the shortfall than the staggering amount? Last year during budget planning, Councilman Mitch Rasansky warned City MisManager Benavides and then Mayor Ron Kirk that their sales tax estimate was way too optimistic in light of economic trends throughout the country. The City MisManager did his little shoulder shirk that we have all seen him do when he's caught in a lie or doesn't have an answer. Con Jerk gave even less response.

Stan Aten responded to Hank Tatum's 8/14 column, but the points Tatum raises are so significant they deserve another review.

Ron Kirk and Our Downtown Betters (the ODB) were pushing the 2012 Olympics. It was not something the citizens of Dallas wanted (as the subsequent vote indicated), and apparently Dallas was not something the Olympic Committee wanted. Whether Tatum and the ODB admit it or not, the rest of the World is not buying the "Dallas mystique". Those of us who live in the real world and drive over bumpy Dallas streets and past poorly maintained Dallas parks know we are in no position to be inviting the World to town for a party. Our party dresses are in disrepair and looking quite shabby. Going after the Olympics was a stupid idea, and even Con Jerk scoffed when that Arlington moron first proposed it. However, when the ODB told him to get out in front of the Olympic parade, Ron Kirk stepped right up and took the baton. Such a team player.

As for CMM Ted Benavides letting "the public know how bad it was going to be", that is just an outright lie. The City MisManager knew as early as last Fall that his sales tax projections were false and inflated. He did not tell the public then. We did not hear about all this until AFTER Mayor PreTend Poss lead the charge to give away another $43 million in future property tax revenue to those California crooks formerly known as Palladium and their Dallas Robber Baron partners, Ross, Jr. and Tommy Hicks. Several people at Ed Oakley's townhall meeting let him know they were most displeased with his vote on that issue.

Tatum says we have to spend our way out of this mess Ron Kirk has left for us. That would be well and good if we had anything left to spend. When Ron Kirk took over as Mayor, we had a surplus. We don't have beans today.
Thank you, Ron Kirk.

· Gas and electric franchise revenues down $6.6 M

Why is that? Are people conserving too much? There was no explanation at the townhall meeting as to where that $6.6 M has gone or the cause of the shortfall. Someone should ask that question at an up-coming townhall meeting.

· Telecommunication franchise revenues down $2.8 M

How is that possible? More people than ever have multiple phone lines -- even with DSL. I know Joe Thug May claims people in my District 6 only have one phone per household, but he lies about all kinds of stuff. Could it be all those telecom companies that Con Jerk was so worried about were not such a threat to our local economy after all? Remember those "virtual" fire trucks he said we would be sending out if cities were not allowed to tax internet sales? Internet sales have never lived up to their promises or been much of a threat to the world as we know it. People still like to walk into a store, touch and try on stuff. We just don't have enough stores where everyday people can go and touch and try and buy stuff. The stores that Ron Kirk likes to frequent are beyond the means of most people. The stores that generate lots of sales tax revenue are in the suburbs.

New information has come to light with this horrible budget.

Whereas residential property values are high and we are getting taxed through the nose, commercial property tax revenue is down for several reasons. One of which is the low occupancy of our hotels and motels.
Thank you, Ron Kirk.

Common sense tells you an under-utilized hotel building is not as valuable as one that is popular. Did you know the appraised value of a hotel building includes its occupancy rate as well as its physical plant? Well, duh! But, did you know it? Our half empty hotels are worth much less for property tax purposes today than they were before Ron Kirk got his arena sales tax past Dallas voters. Doesn't matter whether it was less than 1% of the voters or whether there was fraudulent voting in parts of the city. It's the law of the city today -- and his arena sales tax is killing us and our hotel business.

To add to our misery, Mayor PreTend Poss and her allies just gave away $43 Million in future property tax revenue to encourage the Robber Barons to build MORE hotel rooms which will only glut the market more and further drive down property tax appraisals on Dallas hotels and motels.

Ron Kirk may be out on the campaign trail, but his presence is very much at City Hall. Kirk forced Ted Benavides on the council without a national search. Kirk championed Chief Terrell Bolton when only a fool still believes TB was not the "high ranking officer" who assisted Old Al in his bribe deal with Caligula Rizos. Now Chief TB is going over the City MisManager's head to try and keep his "mouth piece" who earns over $80,000 a year and drives a squad car (she's not even a sworn police officer). Oooh, oooh -- things are getting dicey Downtown.

You know what ticks me off most about this budget? We are going to close our Aquarium after October and at the same time start providing "grounds maintenance surrounding Nasher Sculpture Garden" (page 37 of the Budget handout). We are going to reduce the days all of our pools are open in the summer. We are going to reduce the hours our libraries are open. We are going to reduce the hours our recreation centers are open.   But, there's money to maintain the grounds surrounding the Nasher Sculpture Garden? That is so wrong!

This will not sit well with the arts crowd, but the whole Nasher Sculpture Garden is a tax shelter. It's like that awful exhibit in the Arts Museum of all that junk from that woman who snared a rich European husband. She gets to keep her things together, and she gets to visit Dallas at our expense.

I know common folks like you and me are not supposed to understand how all this "big picture" stuff works. We are just supposed to pay the bills, which we do.   Our little wants and needs are of no consequence.

I'm beginning to think there is no "big picture". The ODB have been keeping us in the trenches with one scheme after another. That worked well so long as they had city managers as talented at shuffling things around as was Chuck Anderson, Jan Hart Black and even John Ware. Even if poor old Ted Benavides had their slight of hand skills, there's no bean under any of the shells for him to hide.

Ron Kirk's real talent is his bravado and bullying ways, plus his ability to create diversions. When he stepped on the toes of his rich benefactors by criticizing the Dallas Country Club, Con Jerk got his buddy Commissioner John Wiley Price to go out and picket his house to distract those angry white liberals who are members at the DCC. The problem with bravado and bullying and distraction is that eventually you have have to deal with reality.

In Europe, they are experiencing flooding like they have never known. Somebody wasn't paying attention to infrastructure problems. No amount of bravado or speech making or distractions is going to divert that water, and they may lose treasures that are centuries old. In Dallas, we are experiencing a financial crisis like most of us have never known. In our case, the ODB worked very hard to keep us from paying attention, and we are going to lose municipal treasures, too.