Submitted by Jeff Buster on Thu, 08/02/2007 - 12:18.
Fools rush in - if you are for a sales tax to build a con center and kennedy mart - you honestly believe that this will trickle down and improve the NEO economy - then you should READ the resolutions (sales tax, use tax) passed by Cuyahoga County Commissioners Hagan and Dimora. Look at the second line of either resolution. "money goes into general fund". There is no language in the resoluions that says that either the sales or use tax is for a con center and kennedy mart. This tax will go on for 20 years sucking in about a million a week. Where will Hagan and Dimora be in 2008 when their terms expire? Promises, Promises. Printed in the Plain Dealer.
And Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, who voted "against" the tax is in fact complicit. If he was really against the tax but for a con center (with support from hotel bed taxes as he said) Mr. Jones would have raised in the public hearings the fact that the resolutions were for money going into the general fund, not into a con center account. Omitting to exercise this ringing argument puts Mr. Jones in a catagory of strong doubt about being "against" the tax.
So, if you REALLY want a concenter and kenmart you would do well to sign a referendum petition right away to help putitontheballot.com this spring. Then you can vote the present resolutions down, and insist that the Commissioners introduce and pass new resolutions which spell out specifically in the resolutions what the sales tax will be used for.
But then again, maybe you were born yesterday.
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350-400 million dollar project
Commissioner Jimmy Dimora said the decision was made to increase the sales tax without a vote because it likely wouldn't pass at the ballot, and there are no other pots of money to tap to finance a $350 million project. I heard another figure at 400 million. So, when do we see this money--in how many years??? I don't get it. Today's PD--says 2010. How does that compute? Best case scenario: we break ground in three years. A lot happens in three years--will this so called "shot in the arm" be delivered too late to save the patient?!
Suburban mayors generally
"Suburban mayors generally support a plan raising the sales tax for a new convention center if it will land a Medical Mart in downtown Cleveland.
And while some said they would prefer voter approval, many view the Medical Mart as a critical project and some praised the commissioners for showing leadership.
"If a quarter-percent tax is going to create that, I'd say it's well worth it," Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers said. "That's a small price to pay to see this area turn around.""
Guess what Mayor Akers -- the small price is not necessarily for the medconcenter; it's for the "general fund".
"Bay Village Mayor Deborah Sutherland said she is upset that the increase could help pay for a new county administration building."
Guess what Mayor Sutherland -- this is probably just why they want to start taxing us in October even though the convention center is not even planned yet -- it has no price tag -- not even a site.
"Cleveland Heights Mayor Ed Kelley wants the federal and state governments to help pay for the convention center."
Then what -- he changed his mind?
I prefer voter approval. Check out www.putitontheballot.com to see where you can sign a petition or get petitions to circulate if you, too, would like to have more questions answered.
get out of the trench already.
They need to commit the balance of the tax increase to other projects, or get control of the administration-building project; they know they could get in trouble with taking that building down.
If they were smart they could mothball the tower and locate at 55th street, then build an action plan to redevelop the tower.
They need to get holistic about it, they need to get off the tower and spread that money out into all the sites they will be leaving. They are going to be leaving vacant space all over.
At 55th is a building that the city would like to have filled with technology, but they cannot fill it. I could, I could fill it with technology if they outsourced all their IT. If they the city outsourced there IT and the county outsourced its IT, then that building could be filled with technology and the county could build its administration offices next to it.
The results would be a higher quality of IT network, application software and reduced redundancy and increased interoperability in systems and the start of a regional system. It could be all open source architecture and as a private provider it could begin to centralize other governments IT services. A private application service provider with government contracts that area would develop and then contracts for hardware could be with local providers.
Empowering an application service provider would create a foothold for technology. That provider could grow and expand; it would supply to the government what it wants with out the bureaucracy and with economy of scale, if it had multiple contracts through standardization of government process in application software.
I do not know about everyone else, I am not looking for problems I am calling for solutions. This is so doable. Gidy up!