While the idiots we elected to Congress continue to debate if it should be $600 or $200 a week in extra unemployment that is invested in stopping the complete collapse of our country while the death toll continues to rise, the local level idiots still seem to think they are doing something to solve a pre-pandemic problem: the costs of keeping them all employed:
“Locally we have lost as many jobs in the last four months than we did in a three-year period of the Great Recession,” said Richard Stock, director of the University of Dayton Business Research Center…
Stock said state and local governments haven’t recovered from being “trimmed to the bone” during the Great Recession and federal assistance would help them avoid cuts in services to their residents.
“It’s not just the urban areas. It’s also the small towns and villages,” Dickstein said, adding that the city projects a $12 million loss in revenue in the current budget.
Both Montgomery County and the city of Dayton took early action to cut budgets before the revenue hits became clear. Dayton limited all but essential spending, suspended capital equipment purchases, froze hiring, abolished 100 vacant positions and used a voluntary separation program to get 96 people to retire, Dickstein said.
The county’s nearly $30 million in budget adjustments included a hiring freeze and cutting economic development grants and capital reinvestment projects, spokeswoman Brianna Wooten said.
Source: PANDEMIC PUNCH HITS DAYTON JOBS – Dayton Daily News [1]
Their concern with jobs has nothing to do with your well-being, it has to do with their self-preservation. How many mayors are there in Montgomery County, how many Township administrators? Police Chiefs? “Economic development” specialists? Well, we’re on a mission to find out, compile the cost, and share it with everyone so you can decide for yourselves. We, by the way, is Reconstructing Dayton, a 501(c)(4) non-profit, that plans to ask every single candidate on the ballot what their positions are on re-engineering Ohio’s archaic and backassward laws allowing an urban township like Miami Township with 50K people, have it’s own SWAT team (I can’t make this stuff up):
Miami Twp. Police Chief Charles Stiegelmeyer said he has examined the police department’s manpower since becoming chief. Using revenues from a levy approved in May 2019, Miami Twp. Police Department added three new positions to bolster SWAT staffing, increasing staff positions to 42.
The restructuring of the department helps ensure there is sufficient supervision and that one supervisor was not getting overburdened with more personnel, he said.
Source: Police chief says new roles help streamline setup – Dayton Daily News [2]
while on the flipside, the “Village” of Phillipsburg, population 500 or so, has an income tax [3].
This week, we were on a mission to find out exactly how much income tax and property tax is collected in all of Montgomery County- via each of the “localities”- which should be interchangeable with the better descriptor “Banana Republics.” In doing our public records requests, we encountered exactly the kind of problems created by too many chiefs and not enough educated Indians. We literally had to cite the “Yellow Book”- Ohio’s “Sunshine Law” guide back, chapter and verse to multiple bureaucrats and even lawyers they are supporting with tax dollars, on why information about public money is public information. You should wander over to the following post for an entertaining case study in stupidity:
Over the past couple days I have spent much of my time filing public records requests. My goal is to collect tax information from the municipalities and townships in Montgomery County to uncover inefficiencies and disparities among our various local government structures. The process of obtaining these records has demonstrated the very inefficiencies we at Reconstructing Dayton are striving to eliminate.
Source: How Public are Public Records? | Reconstructing Dayton [4]
Now, to make your head explode, let’s talk about the lessons we should have learned from the “Great Recession” of 2009, that Richard Stock uses as a point of comparison. Foreclosures are the devils way of government interfering with private business for its own self-flagellation. Why government is expected to enforce private contracts between a lender and a borrower to the extent they are is one of the great mysteries of America. I have a judgement against a thief for $70,000, and can’t get a Sheriff to go collect for me, but, a bank, after missing just a few thousand dollars in payments can take your home with the Sheriff’s help, regardless of how little is left on your loan.
When a bank takes possession of a home, they have little incentive to maintain it or prepare it for resale, especially in poorer areas, where homes often don’t sell before the scrappers have further devalued the homes. It’s absolutely crazy that our local government is somehow turned into an enabler, to help devalue our community. There are no laws requiring banks that have foreclosed on properties to be held responsible for keeping them in the same condition they were when last occupied. The government had to pour trillions in the last time- to save the banks, but not the home owners, or tenants.
If we had rational thinking minds in office, the obvious thing to do is loan modifications, that provide alternatives to foreclosure or eviction. Or, at least, convert the mortgage payment into a rental agreement, until the home is sold, so the property remains intact and occupied. Throwing people on the street just creates additional headaches for social service agencies, welfare, and children, who often get the short end of the stick every time.
Of course, this is what happens when government cares more about self-preservation than public welfare. Public records are just one way we can keep tabs on what really goes on. Figuring out ways to reduce the number of banana republics in Montgomery County alone would go a long way to actually having more funding available for the people, by the people.