Last evening the City Finance Committee approved by a 2-1, to send Council President Michael
Schweder's plan how to spend the casino host fee to full Council at their December 4
th meeting. The
finance committee consists of Joseph F. Leeson, Jr., Chairman, Jean Belinksi and Robert J. Donchez.
The Morning Call has an account
here, and Express Times
here.
Schweder's plan includes using 0
ne-half the host fee of 8.7 million to cut property taxes, the other half would be used to hire 20 police officers, 10 firemen, 6 paramedics and 2 inspectors. The remaining money, estimated by
Schweder at around 2 million, would be placed in a restricted fund only to be spent as authorized by Council.
The problems with
Schweder's plan:
1. The City will not get the money until after the casino opens, estimated to be July, 2009, so how can he decide how to spend it now.
2.
Schweder's numbers were not based on anything but his own imagination. He never spoke with the Department heads and never conducted a study. He arbitrarily chose the number of police, fire, paramedics and inspectors.
3. It is foolish for a City that is admittedly in debt and has to borrow from itself to pay bills, to cut property taxes. That is just asking for trouble down the road.
The real story:
Schweder is trying get his plan through council while he still has the votes to get it passed. Currently,
Schweder has the four votes needed to pass the bill with
Szabo,
Leeson and
Belinski. In January, William Reynolds joins council and voiced concerns over spending the money prematurely and using to cut taxes. He urged a wait and see approach that was similar to what
Mowrer and
Donchez said. They are not against cutting taxes but those decisions can not be made now.
As someone posted on the
mcall.com forums, if
Schweder is successful in getting his legislation passed, which he probably will be, he w
ill force Callahan to veto it.
Schweder does not have enough votes to override the veto, and by that time Reynolds will be on Council, so
Schweder will not even have the votes to get the legislation passed again.
Then if
Schweder decides to run for Mayor, he can attack Callahan for vetoing a tax cut resolution.
This whole mess is just some Dem on Dem Politics, and gets J. Michael
Schweder into the
DINO Club!