Same Money, Different Outcome

News out of City Hall reports they're expecting the Living Wage Ordinance to cost the taxpayers approximately $50,000 in the 2006 budget year. City officials reported the Living Wage Ordinance would only affect a handful of city personnel. It is also expected to increase with inflation and as more companies the city does business with meet the ordinances threshold, which are contracts that exceed $25,000.

The County Commissioners 2006 budget proposal included a $70,000 increase, from $30,000 to $100,000 to the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation. $40,000 of this increase is earmarked for the BEDC’s, Life Sciences Initiative that helped attract the new BioConvergence firm that is anticipated to employ as many as 127 people by 2010 not to mention a capital investment of several million dollars in our community.

What I want to highlight is the difference in philosophy between the City Council, which is Democrat controlled, and the Republican controlled Commissioners. The cost / benefit ratio between the two investments is quite clear and regardless of which governmental body the money is coming from it is still tax dollars. In rough numbers the City’s initiative will cost the taxpayers $50,000 next year and will result in an increase in pay for a small number of existing city employees. The County’s proposal includes $40,000 in funding to further promote employment in a unique industry within our community that will result in 127 new jobs over the next five years. The obvious impetus behind the City’s proposal is to provide additional income for; you guessed it, city employees. By comparison the County’s proposal helps bring hundreds of new non-government related jobs to our community.

County Council President Mark Stoops has indicated that the Democrat controlled Council will put the Commissioner’s BEDC funding proposal under the microscope in an effort to find tens of thousands of additional dollars for social service funding. This once again proves the Democrats are more interested in maintaining their stronghold over the socially dependant population of our community and feathering their own bed than they are at bringing good paying jobs that offer a real opportunity for economic independence. It‘s important to understand what motivation is behind their liberal policies and it is even more important to publicly denounce these self-supporting tactics.