The Morning Report
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Just in case you don’t get a chance to dive into our comments section, we highlight what folks are saying to give you a sample of the chatter.
Here are five from this week:
• Desmond Morton on “Fletcher’s Defection: What Should He Have Done?“:
Ultimately a bad, knee-jerk move for (Nathan) Fletcher. He had too much career to salvage after this race to throw it away with something like this.
That being said, this is ultimately an indictment of the SD County Republican Party. To continually narrow the definition of what it means to be a “Republican”, and hence reduce both your voter and candidate pool, is the antithesis of what a Party is supposed to do.
• John Ptaszek on “Tax Hike Details Remain Secret“:
It is hard to believe that this type of governing exists today. This has undertones of Chicago back in the 50’s. Is there no way to hold this “gang” more legally responsible to maintain transparency at all levels?
I can’t wait to see what happens if we allow major concerns more rights to project their wants in future tax concerns. I now understand why there were people occupying the downtown area. The “elite” are now so brazen that they feel they can just ignore the press. Viva the Revolution!!!
• Dennis Rosche on “The Budget’s Fixed, But Your Street Isn’t: A Reader’s Guide“:
I don’t know how anyone can claim the budget is in balance when you are borrowing hundreds of millions for day to day operations like street repair. The cost for normal operations should come from the general fund revenues not from borrowing. Borrowing should be reserved for capital improvements and street maintenance is not a capital improvement.
The next mayor will find him or herself with the same old deficit problems.
• David Hall on “Opinion: Prop. B Suffers from a Failure of Imagination“:
This is the silliest thing I have read in ages. Stock options and profit sharing for government? No thank you. I don’t want my government run like a profit-making company. I don’t want deals made on the golf course or employees hired because they’re friends with somebody the hiring manager knows. I certainly don’t want the people spending my tax money off chasing the latest fad or gimmick like some internet startup. ….When was the last time anybody associated solid management ideals with startups?
• Bruce Nunes on “Letter: Prop. B Is ‘A Fiscal Bomb’“:
The other thing that may change during the 5 year freeze is that the city has to figure out how to get rid of the many add-ons to pensionable pay. There are 5 pages of these on the city web site that are specialty pays that are included in the pensionable pay figure. Most of those have no basis of being included into pensions. One of the most absurd was listed in VOSD last week when talking about meter maids and the scooter pay. This was an add-on to pensionable pay and it makes no sense. As a comparison, a military person gets flight pay if they are a pilot but that does not figure into their pensions. This pay spiking needs to be contained and the savings will increase.
Statements have been lightly edited to fix spelling errors and typos.
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Dagny Salas is the web editor at voiceofsandiego.org. You can contact her directly at dagny.salas@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5669.
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