Councilman Austin Twists And Turns To Avoid "T" Word -- Taxes -- In His Weekly E-Mail Update

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(Jan. 26, 2016) -- Councilman Al Austin -- who used a Dec. 22 "study session" (scheduled by management to discuss the city's infrastructure needs three days before Christmas) was quick that day to ask city management for options for "new sources of revenue" -- that is, tax increases -- without similarly requesting options for taxpayer cost savings...and continues to avoid using the plain spoken word "tax."

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The 8th district incumbent used gymnastic measures to avoid using the "T" word, and avoids mentioning other pesky facts, in his most recent weekly "On the Council's Plate" emailed newsletter which tells recipients:

"On December 22, 2015, the City Council [fails to mention nearly half the Council was absent] received a presentation from the City Manager on the City's infrastructure needs. The presentation identified [contended] a total of $2.8 billion [no serious vetting, see below] in need [no taxpayer-saving alternatives explored] over the next 10 years to fix and maintain the City's streets, sidewalks, alleys, parks and other city facilities, far exceeding the current level of resources available."

We note that some previously available LB taxpayer resources are now unavailable because Councilman Austin cast the following taxpayer-costly Council votes during his first Council term.

In Nov. 2013, Austin joined six other Councilmembers in voting for roughly 15% management raises over three years. Ongoing General Fund costs each year (as estimated at the time by city management): roughly $1.7 million each year (now unavailable for infrastructure, police, fire, libraries and parks.)
In December 2015, Austin voted for the unnecessary and unwanted [except by the usual downtown interests and the usual suspects] Civic Center transaction that will drain sums from his 8th district and citywide. This includes draining $3 million in taxpayer surplus (that could have been used for city infrastructure) plus $1.7 million each year for the next ten years (that could be used for infrastructure or other city services) on top of tying taxpayers to escalating costs annually (CPI inflator) for 40+ years. Councilman Austin and others could have requested bids to seismically retrofit City Hall (a building less than 40 years old) but didn't. They could have invited experts on retrofits to present cost options that hostile city management didn't. So instead of a seismic retrofit funded by a bond that would have had fixed annual costs approved by a vote of the people, LB taxpayers now have 40+ years of annually escalating payments imposed by the Council without a vote of the people.

And now Councilman Austin and his colleagues want a vote of the people to increase taxes.

Under fairly light questioning, city staff acknowledged on Dec. 22 that the $2.8 billion figure displayed in red figures on a Power Point slide was a "rough estimate" and includes separately funded tidelands projects. None of the Power Point slides were online prior to the so-called "study session," effectively preventing the public from offering responses, especially three days before Christmas.

None of this has stopped Councilman Austin and Mayor Garcia from repeating the $2.8 billion figure which some media outlets have uncritically parroted.

"The City Council will receive that report, and decide whether to request additional information or provide direction to the City Attorney to prepare the documents necessary for a possible revenue measure to be placed on the ballot," Councilman Austin writes...again, failing to mention that the Council could ask management to provide cost saving measures...that he and Councilmembers could have requested and implemented several years ago.

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