23
07/10
Municide of the Day: Ann Arbor, MI – Layoff Firefighters, Buy $850,000 “Art” work
by John Galt
July 23, 2010
Ann Arbor, Michigan is spending $850,000 for some art.
What does that have to do with a city dying, municipal bond default, or taxpayer revolt?
Read this article in its entirety:
The Art of the Ann Arbor City Budget
Then draw your own conclusions.
This excellent article by Tom Gantert from Michigan Capitol Confidential speaks volumes about the mentality of numerous civil servants and abusive imperial acting bureaucrats who think they are beyond the supervision of the citizens nor have any obligation to observe the ideals of common sense and saving the citizen’s tax dollars for a future, yet undefined critical need. This is how Vallejo, CA went bankrupt. This is how Harrisburg, PA is teetering on the edge of Chapter 9 bankruptcy. This is how Jefferson County, AL will soon vote on the option of Chapter 9 bankruptcy.
Excerpts like this illustrate the arrogance of these individuals:
Fraser noted that the public art dollars did not come from the city’s general fund, which is used to pay salaries and benefits, and that less than $6,000 of the art money came from the general fund.
The art projects also must have a “thematic connection” to the source of funding, Fraser wrote. The $850,000 art project is water-themed, because the money came from storm water funds.
So as long as the “theme” relates to the funding allocation it is within their purview to allow critical employees like fire fighters, solid waste management personnel, or other public safety items to be laid off or neglected so they can satisfy their own glorified goals to build monuments to their stupidity. That is why I maintain that the upcoming secondary downdraft in the nation’s economy, the parallel of sorts to the 1931-1934 secondary decline during the Great Depression, will bring this nation to ruin. There is neither the character of our public officials nor desire to avoid corruption of our souls which will prevent the most drastic of results as this economic downturn accelerates during the next twenty-four months.
Municide will become a common public term referring to bankruptcy and mismanagement and cities like Ann Arbor, MI deserve any of my help as they abuse their own citizens. With examples like this in plentiful display from sea to shining sea, including my home town of Sarasota, FL, the Federal government will have to become the largess of last resort so these career politicians can continue to pillage and spend like drunken Pelosi staffers. Otherwise Chapter 9 Bankruptcy will become a virus spreading far and wide engulfing tens of billions of dollars in municipal bonds and destroying the pension system as we know it in our nation.
Mary Johnson
23.07.10
02:30
Why the delay on these bankruptcies?
How are cities staying alive?
I don’t begin to get it.
Technojunkie
23.07.10
13:54
Loads of background detail:
http://annarborchronicle.com/2010/07/15/art-commission-acts-on-dreiseitl-proposal/
The best line is response #35: “Congrats to the AAPAC. The Giant German Urinal Water Fountain fiasco had made the Drudge Report today.”
Stan Larson
23.07.10
16:30
It is amazing to me how bureacrats get away with this and remain in office. Don’t the voters know about this abuse of public money? Those who know about this spending should publicize it. The msm is just another branch of government and the public doesn’t know or care.
As voters, I suppose we get what we deserve. Perhaps the crisis will devolve into some pockets of anarchy and libertarianism. One can hope.
There will certainly be large areas of fascism and tyranny as well, as you have pointed out already.
Those of us who are at least somewhat aware must be ready.
Lawrence
24.07.10
12:07
WHEN the riots come, it will be the FIRST structure BLOWN up! Afterwards, it will be stripped of its copper piping or anything left of value.
WHEN the riots come, the designers and bureaucrats that approved it will be the first to die.
A fait a comple.
sharonsj
25.07.10
21:06
I always said there was more thievery and corruption on the state level than we know about Unfortunately the so-called liberal press isn’t liberal anymore–it’s controlled by big corporations who don’t want you to know what’s happening.
And now that we’re getting real news on the internet, TPTB want to get rid of net neutrality. As usual, the rich will get whatever they want and the rest of us will scramble to pay more fees.
And in my beloved old Ann Arbor… « The Quick and the Dead
26.07.10
15:49
[...] H/T: “The name is Galt…John Galt.” [...]
Brian
27.07.10
04:22
If you want public art then pay for it with your own money. Do not steal my money to pay for it.
Brian
27.07.10
16:28
The banking elite has engineered every financial crisis in the last 150 years.
They are deliberately destroying western civilization because they know our industrial age is unsustainable.
They know the game is up for Keynesian economics because there’s no longer any headroom for debt to be financed by economic growth. The paper money system is heading for collapse because it is simply unsustainable.
For the world’s 6.5 billion people to enjoy the living standards of the average middle class American citizen would require 6 planets’ worth of resources.
Our comfortable western lifestyles are going to abruptly terminated in the next 10 years but most people out there will still expect the state to cosset and sustain them.
They will be sorely disappointed.
qbit
02.08.10
21:07
What’s more, the new building itself, with its $30m price tag, came suspiciously at the same time as a proposed $30m “school millage” tax that the city voted down. So they basically took the money for that big shiny new cop shop from our public school funds.
Sorry folks, its POLICE STATE, not FIREFIGHTER STATE or EDUCATION STATE. get with the program!