Times Union: Jacksonville mayor's Charlotte agenda: Mayor's Conference, little bit of DNC

[Patricia M. McBride]

The timing on this trip is just TOO convenient being their for the empty seats speech tonight.  If the city is paying for this, they shouldn't be as this was a free ride to go to the DNC period.  So much for the mayor's promise not to turn the office of the mayor into a politcal entity by supporting candidates.  Shame on him for using this venue to promote a candidate and one would hope he isn't using any taxpayer money for this all too conveniently planned trip.  How do you feel about it????

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September 5, 2012

By Timothy J. Gibbons

Jacksonville mayor's Charlotte agenda: Mayor's Conference, little bit of DNC

Timothy J. Gibbons

September 5, 2012 8:54 AM EDT

Copyright 2012 The Florida Times-Union. All rights reserved. This m...

Mayor Alvin Brown will return from Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday morning, after spending just over three days in the city that’s hosting the Democratic National Convention.

Brown, a member of the convention's credentialing committee, used frequent flyer miles for the trip, his office said Tuesday. He also paid for his own room and meals.

The mayor arrived Sunday evening and attended a meeting of the credentialing committee. Tuesday morning, he stopped by the convention venue to pick up credentials.

Brown's main reason for traveling up north was to attend meetings put on by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in conjunction with the convention. Similar events were held during the Republican National Convention in Tampa; Brown had announced plans to attend those events, but in the end was not able to do so, spokesman David DeCamp said.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-09-05/story/jacksonville-ma...

[Paul Davis]

I doubt that a judge would look at a city paying 10 mils property tax *after decreasing the rate each year for the past 19) would allow it to declare bankruptcy. He would say, "double your tax rater and pay your commitments from that." Some people havre the idea that they can enter into contracts and just renege on their obligation and walk away owing someone else their money. The law says that once you make a contract, you have to keep it. Pensions are offered as a term of employment, it is part of the agreed upon employment package and is governed by contract law.

[amanda choate]

A Faulknerian sentence, with a  Dickensonian tone, Randian philosophy and Camus' logic.

Brava!

[Patricia M. McBride]

The JSO sees the taxpayer as an endless source of money..........the problem is right now, many of the residents of Duval County are barely making it to put food on the table, can't find jobs, and are fed up with the constant increases in utilities, food, property taxes, and fees while the value of their home plummets and their paycheck pays for less and less thanks to government at all levels spending beyond their means, borrowing money to keep the whole mess afloat, and continuing to spend on garbage they have no business spending hard working tax payers money on (and many of those benefits are for those who don't work at all ... many by choice and don't feed their children...........many by choice because the government has stepped in and taken that obligation away from them and sent us the bill for it). I agree that the solution right now appears to be one thing and one thing only and that is for the city to be forced to declare bankrupcy. We don't seem to have a mayor that can get past the nose on his face with the police and fire pension funds. One mayor created the mess by not having the back bone or caring enough about the city to say, no we can't do that; it isn't affordable and will bankrupt us. Instead, these fools we elect and put in the mayor's office instead, sit at the bargaining table and agree to one thing after another that doesn't fix anything or make it better for the police and firemen or the taxpayers. Right now, everyone will lose, because the money is NOT there. We, as taxpayers, are being inched into paying for more and more of the services the city is supposed to use out tax dollars for because they have NOT done their jobs of saying NO when it needs to be said! And the newest guy, if he allows this, will have broken his promise to the residents after already endorsing the Marxist in the white house to re-election when he promised he would not make the mayor's office political...............so I guess all those articles I read before he was elected were right heah. The articles said the democratic party wanted Brown in office so he could help get Obama re-elected, and that appears to be his plan!

[amanda choate]

Lizzie, the jobs bill was never voted on in the Senate, because it was filibustered. Hence, the American people were denied the right to have a discussion and vote on its merits.

Those are the facts, so could it have been improved, perhaps, but we will never know. It did provide tax relief to small business owners and all the rest that wasn't tax relief to those who would hire workers would have been spent directly on infrastructure. Part of these monies would have been borrowed, but borrowed at an historically low rate.

But who knows, maybe someone in the Senate or House could have come up with a better idea, we sure could use some. But no, it was filibustered and never bought up in the House, even though a third of the spending for the bill came in the form of tax breaks to small business owners. This is why congress has an approval rating of about 10%.

[Lizzie]

What will happen when one day in the future, when the JSO no longer has enough money to pay working first responders because an exorbitant amount is being spent on former employees who are sitting at home collecting pensions? 

When that pensioner has a heart attack and there is no one to jump in the ambulance and race to his house and those precious minutes elapse and he dies... will anyone ever say "Gee, too bad they spent all that money on those big pensions.. guy is dead now"...  The sheriff will bankrupt this city some day... which is fine with me, because then and only then will the city get out from under the unstainable benefits...  

[Patricia M. McBride]

The sheriff's idea is to raise taxes...............and what party does that. Hmmmm. Is there a message there, do you think? People are already overtaxed, and getting loaded down with fees for city services the city is responsible for if they weren't paying for everything else under the sun as in the human rights council, free lunches to every kid in town all summer, and tons.........literally tons of other give away programs that we didn't vote for them to do or even want. They are not the social police or the fairness police; it is not their job to be either. It is not their business to take our tax dollars to use for donating to others or for services for small segments of the population of the city, because they think it is the "right" thing to do without our express consent to do so by a majority vote on a referendum. Until that happens, they should stick to the job we hired/elected them for. Quit buying votes for re-election with our tax dollars and using same for a give away program to targeted supporters. It is the job of the city government to provide city services, keep parks, roads and public building in good condition and provide competent folks to do all these things and not cronies or family members who are not qualified or even care about the quality of the job they do.

[Patricia M. McBride]

You are pretty cool too Lizzie :).

[Lizzie]

Patricia.. thanks for stepping up and saying it straight out.. I like your style.

Amanda, Bill Clinton a maestro?  Yep, at cheating on his wife, demeaning the office of the Presidency and telling lies.  If he is all the Dems have to show the way, well, it's pathetic.

And Obama's "job bill"??? Even his OWN party voted it down..  He has no plan except tax those who have been successful. 

Jacksonville is heading down the path of many cities that will some day go bankrupt... the sheriff will be leading the way paying out the pensions to the unions..

 

 

[Patricia M. McBride]

You don't like being told what you think or what to think..............I would highly recommend you not try telling me what I am thinking because you have not got a clue what I think and aside from these blogs, you don't know me from Adam and probably wouldn't even know who I was if you ran into me on the street.  

Everyone today has taken at least one beginning psych course, and they think that qualifies them to use the miniscule amount of information they have to be an armchair psychologist; they aren't.  Unless you are a doctor of psychology (their specialty), you are not really allowed to treat someone or dispense medication.  If you hold a Masters Degree in psychology, as your specialty, you are allowed to work for a person who holds a doctor in psychology (their specialty), and even they get things wrong fairly often.  I know it is the thing today, but most pretend therapists do far more damage to the people they "treat" than good.

Does that put your work as an armchair therapist attempts in perspective?

[amanda choate]

Dick Morris, a man who literally speaks out of the side of his mouth, I don't need a commentator to tell me what I heard. I understand perfectly. I can listen without partisanship, seeking only to draw my own conclusions. Maybe there is a point somewhere in life where it is only important to hear things that you agree with, not me.

See for me, I want the most efficient govenment in the world. The smartest government in the world. A government that when it spends a buck knows where it is going, what they expect to get for it, and know that if they get it. Govenments HAVE to buy stuff.

Patricia, you expect them to buy medical care for the elderly, others expect  weapons systems, others roads,schools, parks, veterans services, air safety, and on and on.

So let's make sure we get our dollars worth. And if both sides can't co-operate to do that then they are undeserving of their office. If we are goingto have a multiparty republican democracy then co-operation is part of the deal.

Mark Zandi for Moody's Analytics studied Obama's job bill, and said it would provide 1.9 million jobs while giving tax breaks to small business owners and spending directly on infrastructure.

He calls it a win-win for everyone. adding 2% to GDP.

A tax break, 1.9 million jobs and work done on roads we are goingto have to do anyway, and the borrowing takes place at record low levels. This is an easy deal.

Here is what an array of economists have to say about it in the WSJ.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/09/08/economists-react-gauging-...