Have You Had Enough Yet?

The City of Bloomington Utilities has proposed an 11% rate increase in water rates. With the Utilities Service Board painted into a corner they will have little choice but to succumb to demands of the poorly managed utilities department. This increase will supposedly help erase a $2.5 shortfall involving improvements at the Monroe Water Treatment Plant. “This is the second time this board has faced a shortfall,” board president Tom Swafford said this past week at a joint meeting of the board’s finance and engineering subcommittees. He was referring to a shortfall of $2.5 million less than two years ago on the Miller-Showers Park project.

As the City government implodes around itself with absolutely no leadership or direction from the Mayor, the taxpaying citizens will once again be left to pay the piper. While fiscal impotence flourishes within the City government our illustrious Mayor and City Council are ignoring all the warning signs of a major fiscal meltdown as they plunder ahead with yet another costly and totally useless concept, the Living Wage Ordinance. Recently City Council Vice President Chris Sturbaum weighed in on the issue with a HT guest column. His opening statement indicated, “There has been much misinformation regarding the living wage issue”. I will agree with that statement and it has been coming from the likes of Andy Ruff, Mark Kruzan, Milton Fisk, and now Chris Sturbaum. His most reveling statement in his guest column was, “Interestingly, the opponents of the living wage are almost exclusively high wage workers. I kept waiting for an underpaid social worker to plead with us not to force a higher salary on him or her, so as to avoid the loss of government subsidies”. Of course thats not going to happen and the reason is, most of the people that will be affected by the LWO are oblivious to the controversy, so don’t expect them to come forward and speak for or against it.

There was also mention that opponents are almost exclusively coming from “high wage workers”, excuse me, what about the likes of Milton Fisk and his Coalition, aren’t most of them from also in that “high wage workers” category, why choose to listen to them? Local governments or should I say local taxpayers cannot make up for the fact that the Federal Minimum Wage may be set too low or that Federal subsidies are being cut. This ordinance is nothing more than socialism, didn't work then, won't work now. Our democrat controlled City Council has ignored several highly educated constituents of the community that have made far better arguments than their own. Whether you like it or not, they are going to show you what’s best for you. Its obvious, they quit listening to reason along time ago.