October 20, 2010

Mayor's budget increases city spending; Mortgage crisis dropped housing values, but taxes may still increase

The assessed value on city homes and businesses fell this year, but the decline in value won't translate into savings on people's property tax bills.

Mayor John Dickert's budget, released Tuesday night, calls for a 2.7 percent increase, or $1.2 million, in the amount of money the city raises from property taxes. But the proposed increase includes a hidden cost. The mortgage crisis and the burst housing bubble dropped Racine's residential assessed value 4.4 percent this year. So while the tax value of Racine's homes dropped $150 million this year, the mayor's budget would make up the difference by increasing the property tax rate to offset the lower values. The only way to avoid a tax rate increase would be to cut spending to offset the decline in the city's tax base.

Interestingly, and perhaps conveniently, Dickert's budget address to the City Council last night made no mention of the looming tax rate increase. City Administrator Tom Friedel told the JT that the tax rate wasn't available because the city was still waiting on assessment information from the state. While possible, this is the first time in 10 years the mayor's budget did not include mention of the property tax rate, largely because rising assessment values allowed previous mayors to cut the property tax rate.

Here's how the JT reports the missing rate in today's paper:
City officials didn't even want to hazard a guess, because it has been such a volatile year as far as assessments are concerned, Friedel said. Last year's tax rate was $10.84 per $1,000 of assessed property value. If you're trying to figure out what you'd pay in city property taxes on a $100,000, $150,000 or $200,000 home, you'll have to wait until November.
Dickert's 2011 budget calls for a $3.9 million increase in city spending, which is a 2.1 percent increase over this year. The budget includes no layoffs and no major cuts in service.

Interestingly, Dickert claimed Tuesday night that city officials held the levy increase to 1 percent, but his own numbers don't bear that out. His budget calls for a 2.7 percent increase in the levy. When JT reporter Paul Sloth asked about the discrepency, he apparently didn't get a response. Here's how he report it:
Through some modifications and getting a little smarter budgeting, Dickert said city staff was able to get that number down to 1 percent, but didn't explain where that 1 percent came from. 


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102 comments:

  1. After years of recession the city leaders still don't get it. People are losing their homes in record numbers and people are out of work for years at a time yet the elected city officials think it is OK to increase spending. You can only get so much blood out of a turnip. I hope the council steps in and chops the budget. Otherwise Racine needs a new council along with a new mayor. Elected officials who aren't listening to the voters and paying attention to what is going on in their community don't deserve to be re-elected. Racine Unified board and leaders are increasing spending and now the city. This has to stop.

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  2. Let me help find some savings:
    1) Fire the PIO
    2) Fire Brian O'Connell of of the Mayor's own mouth O'Connell leads the Bids and most are not working.O'Connell's continued employment IMHO can not be justified.
    3) Money is tight for us all,there are many things we like to do but can not, for this year no paid travel. Go a long way to show The Mayor is willing to cut back too
    4) Outsource Garbage pick up
    5)

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  3. I agree fire 3 people right off the bat. O'Connell, Eickhorst and Fridel. That saves a few hundo a year. No property tax increases, take a hard look. Furlough days, cuts, pay freezes, not trying to pick on the city employees but things on a City level need to come to a screaching halt. No trips for the Mayor, there's whats called video conferencing. The people of this town cannot even keep the homes they own and everyone I know is living paycheck to paycheck. Go through the budget with a fine tooth comb, it'll take some time, but I'm dead positive there are many ways to save without increasing the burden to the residents. It's called common sense and I guess our city leaders scored an F on that.

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  4. The city leaders need to realize you don't eat lobster on a hot dog budget... Fantasy time is over. They need to wake up

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  5. Racineuncovered is right good idea all City workers outside Police/Fire (12) Furlough days good idea!
    Note we also need to show up and speak at the meetings and call your Alderman

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  6. Stop raising our taxes! Stop spending! Start cutting back, like the middle class has had to do. WHERE DO YOU THINK THE MONEY IS COMING FROM? You may be raising taxes on the rich, but the middle class is suffering. We seem to be the only one's who are cutting back and making the hard decisions on what to stop spending money on. Why don't you try a little harder. Should the people who have jobs in the private sector be the one's who have to support the unionized jobs of the city and government? Should those with government jobs be the only one's getting raises, bonuses, or lavish vacations while we, the middle class, have to keep working harder or get a second job to support them? When will it stop? When everything is redistributed to those with government jobs? Those that support unions? Those that take from the rich when they see fit?

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  7. The other interesting point from the article is that Dickert has yet to negotiate with the unions. All that means is spending is going to go up even more since Dickert got them to agree to a 0% increase last year by promising them a raise this year.

    Why can Dickert not be honest about his numbers? You are increasing spending and raising taxes, own it and move on.

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  8. Racine needs to take lessons from Wind Point. In these declining times, WP hired some contractor-asessor to re-evaluate the Village properties. Many if not most of us got huge increases in our property value inspite of the fact that many homes are unsold for years and more in foreclosure here. The tax rate will stay the same so there should be a huge influx of tax money to the Village. All done at a time when us retired folks can afford it the least. Everyone else is lowering the valuation but not Wind Point! Nice job village idiots....

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  9. Here are some money-saving suggestions: (1) Ditch UNIT. All it does is harrass low-income homeowners for the benefit of SCJ, which wants the poor out of our city in order to turn Racine into a miniature clone of Portland. (2) Fire the Weed Commisioner and his flunkeys. During a depression, we shouldn't worry about invasive plants and other ballyhoo. (3) Cut the nonsense out of RUSD. We don't need lavish athletic programs, high school musicals, dance classes and the ridiculous Horlick High Renaissance Feast, aka Madrigal Dinner. (4) Slash so-called quality of life expenditures. Fancy parks (which just get vandalized) and barely-used bike trails don't have to be in our budget. (5)Stop hiring pricey consultants and ad men to tout Racine as a "destination city." Look around town at the "For Sale" signs and you'll see that Racinians are leaving town in droves. (6) Reduce spending on silly festivals loke "Party on the Pavement." If you read Roy Strong's "Art and Power," you'll swiftly learn that celebrations are a richman's method of distracting the poor majority from organizing to change the system. (7) NO MORE ART! The common people of Racine are weary of seeing a moribund downtown bedizened with planters, flower baskets, banners and the SCJ community art projects which have rendered Racine the laughing stock of the Midwest. (8) Eliminate the zoo from the budget. Assuming the oligarchs want useless exotic critters here, THEY should pick up the tab for their follies.Paupers shouldn't be required to finance the care and feeding of the ossicone-crowned, blue-tongued, piebald giraffe. (9) Cease funding the local historical museum. Inasmuch as the law would let us shut it down if we shipped the archives and exhibits to the State Historical Society in Madison, we should do so a.s.a.p. (Since Racine's history is nothing but a chronicle of oppression by greedy industrialists, nobody except SCJ would miss the museum and its contents.) I'm sure that you readers could come up with moresuggestions.

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  10. The same applies to the Theater Guild.

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  11. Does any public money go to RAM or Wustum? If so, that nonsense should stop right now!

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  12. Don't worry, art fans. As any historian can tell you, the hyper-privileged twits who can't (or won't) help the poor will shell out for their damnable eye candy and ear treacle. During the Irish Potato Famine of 1846-50, British absentee landlords blew fortunes on huge paintings for their mansions. Right up to the Revolution of 1848, Metternich and his clique grooved on Romantic music and threw galas galore. Of course, we mustn't forget Marie Antoinette: while the peasants starved in 1789, Her Mad-jesty had to have new operas by Gluck!

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  13. In other words, the wannabe Medicis and big-buck barons of Racine will keep their beloved arty-tarty avocations afloat.

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  14. All jesting aside, Mayor Dickert could find scads of fat to trim from the budget. However, owing to his bourgeois background and his devotion to the denizens of the Den of Venn, he fails to see that so-called quality of life items and amenities are nothing but unjustifiable upper-middle class luxuries which never belonged in a bluecollar town's budget in the first place. Somebody please give Mayor Dickert a wake-up call.

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  15. The museums do get money from the City, a lot of money goes to the Park & Rec department. I see a ton of waste! The unit is just a reason to really pick on some people

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  16. Hi Mr. Angry!

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  17. How much money goes to the ultra useless RCEDC?

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  18. what's wrong with getting rid of the poor people? sounds like a good idea to me. Portland is way better than Racine.

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  19. If you think for one minute the idiots in city hall are listening to us YOUR WRONG, vote them idiots out ASAP.

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  20. History lesson here for elected officials. In 2006 and 2007 the economy started to fail. It really got bad in 2008 and 2009. It is all but dead in 2010. A lot of people are out of work or have been out of work the past few years. Many people have lost their homes. There is almost an empty house on every block. That means that raising the taxes after this has gone on for 4 years is crazy. The mayor clearly isn't listening or observing what is going on around him. Of course that is difficult to do being attached to the rear ends of the president and governor. They haven't understood what is going on either. That means the council must do their job, which in this case is doing his job. The voters will sort it all out in April. So concludes the history lesson. Anyone in City Hall understand the message?

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  21. Dickert and his tribe of obtuse snobs must go!

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  22. May art depart and yield to heart! The folks in my neighborhood have had it with community art projects, a dying downtown adorned with flowers for its funeral, costly banners and other CRAP (Crazy Richies' Absurd Paraphernalia).

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  23. Does the Racine Arts Council receive public money? If so, somebody please pull the plug NOW.

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  24. An Open Letter to Mayor Dickert: When Your Honor may find the time (between visits to the Venn-ue and Whitebread), please take a tragical misery tour of your Dumbbell City. Notice the plethora of "For Sale," "For Lease" and "For Rent" signs. Observe the proliferation of vacant houses and empty storefronts. Please, Your Honor, wake up. Racine is not, and never will be, a "Top Ten City." Instead, Racine is what our Pacific Rim pals term a "Number Ten City." Thank you very much.

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  25. Racine: Prettified Poverty Pit of the Upper-Mid-WASTE.

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  26. Memo to the Last One Who Leaves Racine: You won't have to turn out the lights. This dump has been dead since the seventies.

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  27. Does the RSO receive public subsidies? If so, that plutocrats' plaything should be deleted from the budget instanter. The RSO's idea of what Racinians need is a performance of Monteverdi's "Vespers of 1610."

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  28. Don't forget the Choral Arts Society--another richies' playpen which no taxpayer should be forced to support. I believe the wealthy warblers will participate in Saturday's Monteverdi performance. I sincerely hope that no public money may wind up in the CAS' treasury. Poor bluecollar Racinians have better uses for their pathetic pennies.

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  29. If the excessively-solvent classes want four-hundred-year-old music, they--not the taxpayer--should foot the bill for it.

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  30. Here's another suggestion for Mayor Dickert: let's eliminate fireworks from the budget. Every year thousands of dollars literally go up in smoke because John Adams liked pyrotechnical displays. (Adams and his mate Abigail also enjoyed the minuet, a dance which we no longer include in our festivals. Perhaps someday the fireworks will follow the minuet into well-deserved oblivion.)

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  31. Until RUSD turns out competent graduates, we should concentrate on basic education. Sports (other than activities mandated by the state), art, music and other non-essentials should vanish. (Don't worry--the parents whose kiddies crave the frills will send them to private schools where such toys abound.)

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  32. Another thing we don't need at RUSD is theater/drama. Kids are already too good at lying as it is. We don't need to fund pricey lessons in prevarication.

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  33. Seriously speaking, our inclusion of theater/drama in the curriculum is a relic of the Renaissance, when exclusive academies prepared privileged lads for careers as courtiers. Since petty nobles and ambitious bourgeois bozos were expected to amuse their royal masters by appearing in pageants (masques), schools for wannabe eliteniks taught them how to act, sing and dance.

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  34. Memo to Mayor Dickert and Dr. Shaw: The USA is not a monarchy. Please clear away the Rennaisance rubbish. Even the Waxies aren't so arrogant that they expect their retainers to warble, prance and stage plays for their divertissement. In 2010, a cinquecento curriculum is ridiculous.

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  35. Once, long ago, frills galore were necessary for success at frivolous royal courts. (Back in the fifteen-hundreds, the elite's interest in nonsense was so intense that even Saint Ignatius Loyola bent the rules to include acting, music, dance and art in the curriculum of his schools. Later on, in the 1680's, Madame de Maintenon made her otherwise-austerely educated pupils perform dramas by Jean Racine for King Louis XIV.)

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  36. But what was right for privileged kiddies in the days of yore isn't what modern American youngsters need for survival in an increasingly crass and heartless world.

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  37. It's time for RUSD to remember that its mission is to provide our children with a good, sound, basic education. In view of the present depression, all non-essentials should be removed from the curriculum. Furthermore, somone should rein in the principal of a certain IB school where staffers have been known to fiddle with dragon boats while kiddies listened to a paid lecturer hold forth on the joys of mountaineering.

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  38. Whatever that pricey stuff was, it wasn't basic education. The taxpayer should not have to ante up for such nonsense in the future.

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  39. I'd like to know what Mayor Dickert and his lackeys splurge on travel. Then there's the ten grand per annum that flies out the window for a worthless Sister Cities program which benefits nobody except a certain multinational corporation and its oligarchic owners.

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  40. Apropos of SCJ, why does it continue to dodge its property taxes? If the wicked Waxies paid their fair share, the city/county could easily rake in an extra five hundred grand.

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  41. That's more than most of us will ever see in a lifetime. Here's hoping that Mayor Dickert possesses the guts to take on SCJ.

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  42. SOMEBODY has to do it. When even casual visitors can see that Racine is a corrupt little company town, we've got trouble.

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  43. Speaking of problems, a place I'll have to call the "De Coffin Center" is a source of grief to one of my neighbors. Is "De Coffin" a bonafide non-profit entity? How much by way of property tax does it evade each year? Does "De Coffin" get city/county cash? What does its reportedly-arrogant executive director take in per annum? Can "De Coffin" be stripped of tax-exempt status? Quite a few Racinians want answers to these questions.

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  44. Our sorry city seems to be top-heavy with tax-exempt playgrounds for corporate yuppies...

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  45. This is a prime example why I want to do away with the property tax statewide.

    The property tax is inefficient; this can be measured by the amount of delinquent property taxes in the city. All those dollars equal uncollected taxes and possible seizure of homes and businesses. Delinquent tax does not help schools nor the city budget. The sales tax is efficient; it's collected at the point of sale for all sales transactions and comes from both residents and visitors alike.

    All taxing jurisdictions in the state, this includes RUSD, municipalities and more, would get to regulate the sales tax just as they do the property tax. This means there should be no deficit in funding although it will put a downward pressure on the amount collected. Right now the rate is set arbitrarily with only upward pressure and this is why property taxes nearly always rise, year after year.

    All taxing jurisdictions would be allowed to set whatever exemptions they desire. This means food at a minimum, hopefully medicine and whatever else they choose. This will allow taxing jurisdictions the flexibility to tailor taxes to their residents' needs.

    Abolishing the property tax would be a $50 million dollar payraise per year for all Wisconsinites, union or non-union, Democrat or Republican, rich and poor. This extra money going in to the economy would spur job growth as it is spent and be collected again at the point of sale.

    Abraham Lincoln said, "The power to tax is the power to destroy". We see this with so-called sin taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. We tax these things to discourage use. Taxing businesses and homes (also passed on to renters in increased rent) increases costs and therefore lowers the number of people who can open a business or own a home or have truly affordable housing. Property taxes increase the costs of home-ownership by anywhere up to 50% on lower than average valued homes. There are 1,879 foreclosures in Racine County according to Realty Trac. How many less would there be if we liberated residents from that tax?

    As the number of property tax paying homeowners and businesses decrease, the tax burden on the rest increases. This perpetuates a cycle of higher taxes, fewer homeowners, and fewer jobs when the economy isn't booming. Unemployment is high and the real estate crunch is continuing.

    Equally important are jobs for the people in Racine. With no property tax we could set up the state of Wisconsin to have an innate comparative advantage to other states to draw business and get Wisconsin back to work and earning a decent wage.

    We'd then have to keep on our local government to stop raising the sales tax but that's less painful than dealing with the property tax, especially for those collecting unemployment or working at reduced wages or hours.

    We're taxed enough already and I will strive to change that if elected, even beyond the property tax, but I'm certain this property tax system needs to go!

    Anthony De Cubellis
    Candidate for the State Assembly, 62nd District

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  46. Anthony De Cubellis10/21/2010 5:27 AM

    Correction: $50 million for Racine; $10 billion statewide.

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  47. Dear Mr. De Cubellis, The sooner we abolish the property tax, the better! Unfortunately, the leeches over at RUSD and other Badger State school districts have grown accustomed to gouging the citizenry via property tax. Sad to say, RUSD and its ilk won't readily relinquish their access to their favorite cash cow. Nope, not when they "need" the long-suffering peasantry's pennies for pricey high school musicals, experiments with dragon boating as a team building exercise for new staff, lavish athletic programs, junkets galore for administrators and the notorious Horlick High Renaissance Feast, aka Madrigal Dinner... Teaching our "educators" the difference between "wants" and "needs" is going to be a major project. (Trust me--I learned the hard way when I tried to explain the facts of financial life to the nice lady in charge of Horlick's little Elizabethan musical extravaganza. She reacted as if a dog had addressed her.) Good luck to you in all you do!

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  48. One thing I know for sure--our pedagogical pundits who preside over art or music programs are arrogant to the core. More than one education reformer or concerned tax payer has received verbal abuse in return for complaints anent RUSD's fiscal follies. (Damn it, we PAY their inflated salaries. A little respect for the ordinary, non-arty individual would be greatly appreciated.)

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  49. As long as RUSD turns out graduates who can't read, write, spell or solve simple math problems, art, music, athletics and other genteel frills don't belong in the curriculum. This sorry situation has been with our school district for decades. Back in the fifties, we had a music consultant (Miss O'Leary) who insisted that all the sixth graders participate in a silly festival held over at Park High School. To prepare the kids for the big event, the teachers concentrated on music to the detriment of stuff like reading, spelling and long division. The end result was a batch of sixth graders who knew zilch about the three r's but could sing all the verses of a Cuban folktune ("The Silver Star") and several other ditzy ditties.

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  50. Thanks to Miss O'Leary, the students could trill the praises of "Rosita, pretty maid with a face like a rose." Even today, fellow-alumni of Roosevelt Elementary School can belt out that crappy Cuban cancion habanera. However, doing long division is a different matter.

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  51. The time has come to close the carnival at RUSD. (If parents really want their progeny exposed to fluff and flummery, they can hock their homes and send the kids to Precious Airy Academy.)

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  52. Cut the fat at city hall! Dickert and his pals must go!

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  53. A good example of a waste of money. The leaves are still pretty much on the trees, they are falling but yet DPW is out here picking them up (while more blow off the trees) that is a waste of money right there, limit things like this and it would save a couple of bucks.

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  54. Amen! What you said is just good common sense. Alas, common sense isn't all that common at City Hall. In fact, anything resembling logic or reason is scarcer than the proverbial hen's teeth in our municipal den of inanity and insanity. Joking aside, it's time to vote the upper-middle class Waxlackeys out of office and elect Waxfree working class men who'll pay attention to ordinary citizens and their needs. There's nothing wrong with our city government that a thorough purge of ceraceous snobs and slickers can't cure.

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  55. Vote out the goof ol' boys and elect MEN!

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  56. Where were all you whiners last night? The galley looked pretty empty except for maybe 2 non administrative employees.

    Have any of you whiners taken a hard look at the proposed budget which is on the city's website. Well, of course not because it is a difficult document to read and understand.

    It is obvious that none of you really want resolution you just want to complain and make lude remarks.

    Where do the leaves go if they are not picked up?

    What good has outsourcing done in Milwaukee? They are paying double and triple time to their employees because of furlough days.

    Outsourcing garbage? What a moron. These employees cannot be layed off - so go ahead and outsource and then pay double.

    When will you citizens ever become involved in the process? You are part of the problem not part of the solution. It is your lack of utilizing good judgment and not running for an elected position or not voting that has caused what you consider irresponsibility by the elected officials. VOTE or RUN these are your 2 choices.

    You cannot blame John Lehman, Cory Mason, or Robert Turner for what ails this city. You can blame Robin "Carpetbagger Vos and Van Wangaard.

    Robin "Carpetbagger" Vos for his vote against gas tax indexing because this money paid for road repair. Remember this is the guy who lived in Burlington and would have had to run against Samantha Kerkman so he decided to move to Racine?

    Van Wangaard for sucking the city dry on full disability while it appears that he is perfectly capable to work because first he wanted Cory Mason's job and now he wants John Lehman's job. YES JOB. Contrary to what you may think legislators have to work 12-14 hours days. How can someone on disability work 12-14 hour days effectively?

    So you can do something on November 2nd; vote for workers not carpetbaggers and thieves.

    Your assignment for next week is to fill the chambers of City Hall for the next round of budget discussions.

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  57. Dear Anonymous 10/22/2010 10:29 PM, Although exhorting citizens to vote makes sense, telling ordinary people to run for office is silly. In case you haven't noticed, candidates have to possess cash galore. Where is the average guy going to get the mega-moolah necessary for a political campaign? Also, who--in this age of multiple low-wage jobs--has the time to attend meetings? Please get real.

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  58. IMHO it doesn't matter at this point if a candidate has cash galore. People aren't just fed up, they have lost jobs, lost their homes, or are just barely making ends meet. Those candidates believe because they can get yard signs, commercials, flyers and use their money to try to "buy" the election with advertising they'll win. Not anymore. The "everyday resident" which outnumber the "elite" are barely making ends meet, they have had to cut things out of their lives. They are going to pay attention it's going to be about common sense, responsibility, people in this town learned the hard way. Dickert was the prime example of "false promises" with his 10 year plan. It won't be good hair and a smile that will win, it'll be helping the little people and showing how it can be done on paper.

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  59. What we do:

    Fire the PIO
    12 Furlough days for all city workers other then Police/Fire
    Fire O'Connell
    Fire one of the Dept Public Works Ast heads
    No travel


    This or we fire Aldermen

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  60. Fire Freidel

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  61. AMEN! AMEN!

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  62. Let's clean out City Hall! Insiders and good ol' boys must go. Then--maybe--we'll have honest, frugal municipal government.

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  63. One thing I do know for certain: SCJ and Mayor Dickert's artsy-craftsy scheme to transform Racine into a tourist mecca must cease. Anyone who's ever resided in a resort town will tell you that tourism generates low-paying seasonal jobs. On top of that, tourism attracts crime. Quite often, inebriated or doped-up visitors do things they'd never do back home. (Perhaps you've heard the adage that "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." If you research the crime and the economic distress in that plagued place, you'll lose all desire to turn Racine into a "destination city.")

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  64. We don't need Lying John, Tag-Along Tom and their money-masters from Wind Point. We must elect Waxfree MEN only.

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  65. Also, a certain foreclosure femme fatale needs to learn that Racine isn't her toy village, a contemporary counterpart of "The Queen's Hamlet," where Marie Antoinette whiled away her idle hours. If the billionaire bank babe has half a brain, she'll stop trying to distort a bluecollar community into an art colony.

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  66. Any and all proponents of arty-tarty nonsense should be voted out a.s.a.p. and replaced with MEN who've worked in the real world.

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  67. There's a class clash in Racine: the rich are waging war on us 24/7 and piling up victories thanks to their bought-and-paid-for puppets in City Hall. It's time to ship the marionettes back to their masters in Wind Point and fill City Hall with Waxfree MEN who'll care about ordinary citizens and their needs. Also, we'd better start electing fiscally-responsible people to run RUSD or we'll continue to be taxed into the muck by arty elitists who don't know the difference between education (the three r's) and recreation (the High Renaissance Feast, aka Madrigal Dinner).

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  68. Due to the influence of a certain kleptoplutocratic clan, aesthetic folly has long been the rule in our public schools. Back in the fifties, when Music Consultant O' Leary inflicted her festivals on the sixth-graders, we had an Art Consultant who flew all over the country at public expense to chin wag with her colleagues. As a result, we also had then what we've still got today--scads of semi-literate students who couldn't solve simple math problems or find Wisconsin on a map of the USA.

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  69. During the sixties, some of us naively thought that the artiness would leave RUSD because the richie-poos now had their own private snob snuggery in which to play their pretentious games. No such luck--instead of cutting back on the nonsense, RUSD brought in more of it in order to compete with the corporate-sponsored private school.

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  70. When the seventies arrived, the situation grew worse with every passing year. Finally, after the middle of the decade, somebody saddled us with The Horlick Madrigal Dinner, aka High Renaissance Feast.

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  71. Since then, RUSD has been infamous for having students who can't read but can trill "Dona Nobis Pacem" and other catchy tunes from the days of Good Queen Bess. This sorry state of affairs has rendered RUSD the laughing stock of the Midwest.

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  72. We'd better close the Renaissance fair FAST. The sooner we remove the arty clique from the School Board, the better!

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  73. Getting back to Lying John, everyone knows what an art fan he is. In order to ingratiate himself with SCJ and its lackeys, he's always pushing community art projects and other amenities dear to the Cornell clique. In my neighborhood, the hardpressed taxpayers are ready to vote for ABD--Anyone But Dickert.

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  74. Our next mayor must have zero ties to The House of Wax. Otherwise, we'll wind up playing the same old SCJ-approved games while Racine heads even further down the road to ruin than it already is.

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  75. Wanted: A MAN who will oppose "historic districts" and other ceraceous ballyhoo. Until the present depression is over, people and their needs must trump architecture and "historic preservation."

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  76. As for art colonies, the citizens of Racine need them as much as a fish requires a bicycle. Memo to Ms. Yellin' Waxbabe Lipoff: The Dumbbell City is a Rustbelt burg and nothing more. If you want an art colony in your backyard, please relocate to Carmel by the Sea.

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  77. Santa Fe's loaded with so much artsy-craftsy crap that even the wealthy Waxbabes wouldn't be able to buy all of it. Seriously, the sooner a MAN teaches the Bugspray Baroness that Racine is not--and never will be--an art colony, the better.

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  78. Art colonies are nothing but trouble to, and for, the surrounding communities. Due to their freewheeling ways, artists tend to abuse alcohol and drugs galore. Also, anyone who expects art colonies to generate jobs which pay a living wage is living in La-La-Land.

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  79. Like tourism, art tends to yield seasonal, low-wage jobs along with high crime rates. We neither need, nor want, an art colony in Racine.

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  80. JOBS, NOT SNOBS! We need programs like the late, great WPA and private sector jobs which pay a living wage, NOT artists, art and art colonies.

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  81. I've visited arty cities. Beneath the pretty facade, there's nothing but misery for anyone who isn't either a member of the local money-archy or a well-remunerated society quack supported by solvent patrons. One of my saddest memories was the parade of overworked, underpaid waitresses and hotel maids I encountered in Santa Fe. While these downtrodden wage slaves could barely keep body and soul together, the gallery ghouls and a handful of privileged "artistas" whose pricey crap filled their pretentious establishments were cadging cash galore. Art colonies are a curse to any community which harbors them. I hope and pray that our next mayor will stand up to Miz Yellin' and reject her harebrained hederaceous (i.e. Ivy League) schemes and scams.

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  82. Like tourism, the art industry spawns low-wage, zero-benefit service jobs which drive working class people to crime. If you want to see hotel maids sexually servicing clients or peddling pot to patrons in order to make ends meet, let Hellbender Lip-Off turn this badnews burg into an art colony. (A pal of mine who spent an evening in Carmel by the Sea was propositioned by two hotel maids, a bellhop and a mixologist. 'Nuff said.)

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  83. Wherever you have art colonies, you'll find drug abuse, hepatitis and VD running rampant. If I possessed the legal authority to shut them down, every art colony would be history tomorrow.

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  84. May the next mayor and his council pull the plug on the "Uptown Art Colony," the "Heart of the Arts" district and the SCJ-promoted "Community Art Projects." We don't need any more bears, chairs, clocks and other bits of shlock cluttering up our dying Downtown.

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  85. Can't Mayor Dickert and his sidekick see the "For Sale," "For Rent" and "For Lease" signs blighting our moribund "Lakeside Business District"? Don't they look at our high unemployment and minority infant mortality rates? An exotic animal in our zoo or one of Uncarin' Waxbabe Boidcage's toy teapots at RAM will receive better care than a poor woman's baby will get in this toadish town.

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  86. Apropos of kids and the neglect thereof, not too long ago an outfit I'll call the "De Coffin" Center threw a lavish birthday bash for an imaginary youngster (Harry Potter) while real children existing within easy walking distance of that dive suffered and died in poverty. Had I the authority, "De Coffin" would forfeit its non-profit status and other perks. In fact, if I could legally send the wrecker's ball and dozers there, I'd do so a.s.a.p.

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  87. Needed: A brave MAN in the mayor's office who'll resist SCJ and its Cornell yuppies.

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  88. Memo to Dr. Risk and Mr. Hurt-Us Waxman: Racine is NOT "Johnsonville." A few years back, a little man with a big heart said that his empire was "one of many players in this great town." It's time to remember and act on your Dad's words of wisdom.

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  89. Meanwhile, let's elect a MAN who'll remind the Waxies that they don't own Racine and its people.

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  90. Needed: A WAXFREE MAYOR!

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  91. Goal: A WAXFREE RACINE!

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  92. Dear Yellin', Risk and Hurt-Us, The fact that your Daddy died and left you bundles of boodle doesn't entitle you to exploit this community. Fortunes come and go. Dollar-sign dynasties rise and fall. If you're savvy, you'll cease to see Racine as your fiefdom or your arty-tarty Potemkin village and start helping your victims survive the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Put away your Horatio Alger fairy fibs, chuck Emersonian self-reliance in the trash and ditch Ayn Rand's got-loot gospel of greed. Instead, start doing charity work to assist those whom you and your crass class have trampled in your quest for the Unholy Kale. Perhaps, if you voluntarily share your ill-gotten gains with the less-fortunate, you and your heirs may be allowed to retain a smidgen of your obscene stash subsequent to the rise of a common man's government. Otherwise, you and your clan may wind up divested of all assets and/or incarcerated. One thing is certain: after a people's regime seizes power, Racine will no longer be your plaything.

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  93. From any perspective, Racine is nothing but a singularly corrupt company town crushed beneath the platinum boots of an arrogant corporate crime clan. Although The House of Wax and its presiding money-masters put up a fancy philanthropic front, few rank-and-file Racinians fall for their flashy flim-flam. The common man and his downtrodden kin know all-too-well what the Waxies really value--the Waxstash and their ceraceous selves. (A dollar-sign dynasty whose foundation femme thinks that our impoverished community requires follies such as "Wolfgang at W--------d" is either callous to the core or possessed by the spirit of Marie Antoinette. Even in good times,big bucks blown on little foibles would be ethically questionable. During a depression and wartime, crap like "Wolfgang at W--------d" can bear but one adjective: CRIMINAL.} MAY THE NEXT MAYOR OF RACINE DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM THE WAXCLIQUE AND ITS PRETENTIOUS PREOCCUPATIONS. While the people of Racine continue to struggle for bare-bones survival, the got-loot ghouls must learn to keep their arty toys out at W--------d and their diamond-banded talons off our town.

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  94. Pending the termination of the present economic crisis, our municipal officials must concentrate on the wellbeing of ordinary Racinians, NOT "quality of life" issues dear to the hard hearts of the oleaginous oligarchs in W--d P---t.

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  95. Here's hoping that the current mayor and his successors stand up to the Waxies and nix any future community art projects in our moribund down-er town. While they're at it, our municipal officials can call a halt to the ill-conceived art colony initiatives which have rendered Racine ridiculous throughout our region. Perhaps, when they've acquired backbones and guts, our guys in City Hall will strip a certain museum-cum-tax-shelter of its property tax exemption. Ditto some Frank Lloyd Wright structures owned by tax-dodging boodle boys and a seaplane shrine which should never have been built in the minority infant mortality capital of the purportedly-developed world.

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  96. NEEDED: MEN WHO WILL RESIST THE CORPORATE PORKERS,THE SHIFTY SHOATS AND THE GUILTY GILTS.

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  97. Tax "Project Honor" NOW!

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  98. That fancy fane for a flying machine and its peculiar property tax status have made "Johnsonville" the laughing stock of the state. Unlike the Wright monstrosities, "Project Honor" was designed by a British firm (Foster and Partners). If one tenth of the wealth lavished on that dynastic ego monument had gone to the Food Bank, Racine's hunger crisis would have vanished. At the very least, the clan responsible for this architectural aviation abomination should start paying its property taxes. HERE'S HOPING THAT A WAXFREE MAYOR WILL DIVEST ANY AND ALL WAXPROPERTY OF ITS TAX EXEMPT STATUS.

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  99. Tax "Project Honor," /shut it down./Run the Waxcrooks/out of town.

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