Common sense solution to city's sidewalks

Over on Abdul's blog there is a good discussion going between a thoughtful liberal who calls himself "Think Again", City Council President Ryan Vaughn, and Abdul's readers about the transfer of the city's water company to Citizen's Gas and the bonds that would be issued in the deal to pay for infrastructure.

TA wrote a short analysis of why the deal is bad and, to his credit, Ryan Vaughn responded (in red ink) with his response. It is a must read for anyone who is following the proposed utility transfer. Vaughn's response mirrors what the mayor's office and his lawyers want. TA's analysis seems to be more in line with what The People are saying about the deal.

Unfortunately, we don't know for sure the exact number of the gargantuan bond that will be issued to Citizen's Gas. The number we hear from the politicians changes a lot depending, I guess, on which politician is talking and what day it is.

Every citizen in Marion County ( who is not directly profiting from this bond deal) is seeing huge blinking DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! signs. If you know of a citizen blogging in favor of this deal, please let me know.

Update 7/9/10: Ryan Vaughn emailed me to say that 62% of the people polled want the transfer and the bond deal. I replied to ask for the wording of the poll question and how, when, and where the poll was implemented. I explained to Ryan that most of the people I am currently and unscientifically polling don't understand the deal and when it is explained that our water and energy are being used as collateral, they are recoiling. I seriously doubt if the poll question plainly states to our citizens that their water is being used as collateral on the debt.

Because Ryan (to his credit) is so forthcoming in communication, I seriously doubt that he won't give me the exact language of the polling question. I also believe that he is pushing/selling is what he feels is right. However keep in mind, Ryan's work environment is Barnes & Thornburg lawyers inside one of the top mover/shaker law firms of the city, and are legal counsel on record to Veolia Water. His influences are likely much different than yours and mine.

President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the other self-serving elitists among his administration effectively forced the health care bill down the throats of Americans AGAINST OUR WILL! It will likely cause the Democrats the House of Representatives and Obama his presidency.

Surely, our Mayor, "The People's Mayor" would not resort to tactics like Obama used to force something we don't want upon us. Or would he? He seems to be doing just that.

Here's a common sense idea. Let's raise some good old fashioned CASH! Cash has power and it doesn't have consequences down the road. CASH doesn't have interest due to the banksters.

Let's examine first which areas of the city are most in need and exactly how much it will cost using the best deals we can get from our local private qualified licensed contractors."

Let's fix our infrastructure in easily manageable and transparent stages starting with whatever area is most in need of attention. Let's raise the cash as we go.

I know we have a bunch of assets we could sell that no one would miss. Things like all that real estate sitting empty. Let's start there.

Another option is to see if the public would write a one time cash check to the city to take care of the most urgent of needs. This might not be a hard sell if The People were backing the idea.

And finally, a suggestion was made to me today by property tax activist, Dave Bond, that if we did issue bonds, why couldn't those bonds be backed by the cash of our own citizens? We could run it like a credit union. That way those who ponied up cash could be paid the interest as a return, rather than hold a vital human need (water and energy) as collateral to the banksters.

I am open to anyone challenging me as to why these ideas are not prudent and why they should not be our first course of action before we offer up VITAL collateral to more borrowing from the bond banks. Banks and interest are bringing America to her knees!

We all know this to be true. It is time to collectively say we are not having it! NO MORE!

The use of our homes as collateral led to the property tax crisis. Our homes were used as an unending revenue source until The People could take no more. Surely, we learned from that colossal mistake. Surely, somewhere deep inside our lost Mayor Ballard, he gets it.

These deals always, I repeat ALWAYS, cost us way more in the long term than the upfront promises of politicians. They always turn ugly.

The politicians pushing this on us must turn off this path! Let's raise the cash and sell some of our under used and unnecessary assets instead.