Tt post mar 22 2016 b

Tue, Mar 22, 2016 tweet by Ignazio Messina:

The @city_of_toledo chief of staff took umbrage with my use of the words "finally, jacked up, and heaped" in today's story on trash fee hike

The chief of staff needs to toughen up. What would the chief of staff think if Messina had used the applicable words: illegal, tax, theft, incompetence, and probable malfeasance?

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Currently, Toledo's illegal monthly refuse fee tax costs households $8.95, but senior citizens with homestead exemptions pay $5.00.

Back in November, PH2 wanted to increase the monthly illegal tax to $15.00 and $8.50 respectively.

Lindsay Webb tweet from this afternoon:

Mayor proposes modified garbage fee $6.50 for homesteaders and $11.50 for regular households.

Our illegal tax will probably be "jacked up" by a smaller than expected amount, but this whole thing is jacked up.

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Another Messina tweet from this afternoon while covering a Toledo city clowncil meeting, I think.

Councilwoman Yvonne Harper took umbrage with spending $275K on bike paths when city has ZERO for residential street repaving

Webb explained

the proposal before us was a grant application, which, if approved, would provide a 75% state grant for the Overland path.

Grant application as in taxpayer money from the state??

Question: In order to receive this grant money, does the city of Toledo have to put up some money too? Matching funds? If so, then that's impossible, because since we have ZERO dollars for street repairs, then we cannot have money to support a bike path.

It's always funny to me when government agencies clamp down on scammers when the biggest scam running is probably goobermint.

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Excerpts from a Tue, Mar 22, 2016 Toledo Blade editorial.

Repeating, this is an editorial from the Toledo Blade.

Toledo, Ohio daily newspaper. The Blade.

I added some emphasis. Did I mention that this editorial is from the Toledo Blade?

Breaking News

... city residents have the right to be a bit incredulous, even outraged, when city officials claim that there is not one dime to be found in the city budget to buy asphalt in the next few months.

Give us an everlovin’ break.

That’s what you might call an unctuous fiction — an act of insincerity and bad faith meant to scare or snow the voters so they do what politicians want them to do.

That's a good word: unctuous.

The writer explained a little about Toledo's “mill-and-fill” machine.

• The city spent more than $700,000 in 2014 to buy the equipment
  • $340,458 for a mill machine
  • $318,076 for an asphalt-paver
  • $103,723 for a 10-ton roller
• In 2015, the city street department workers used the machine to repave 10.93 miles of city streets for $576,501.
• In November 2015, it was announced that no money existed to use the equipment in 2016.

More from the editorial:

No wonder city voters are fed up.

The money quote, literally:

Why would voters trust city officials with millions more in tax dollars when they so often have squandered the tax dollars they have already been entrusted with?

... Toledo Blade editorial ...

Our leaders have not been careful stewards of the public’s money. And saying there are no economies to be found makes them seem like they are being less than straight with us. Or like they have been drinking their own Kool-Aid.

... city officials are going to have to come clean with voters, and perhaps themselves.

At stake here is credibility. City leaders currently have very little. Without credibility, they will likely not get much more money out of the voters. And that’s not only understandable, it’s democracy. A “no” vote is the one fiscal disciplinary power the voters possess.

Ahh, but we do not have a vote when it comes to the illegal refuse fee tax being jacked up.

Overall, it was an interesting Toledo Blade editorial.