government

Today’s champion of open government: Fox News?!?!?

 

Actually Fox Business Network.

The network filed a FOIA request to see where exactly our tax dollars (and our kids’ and our grandkids’) are going. Due to a little heal dragging on the part of the Treasury Department, Fox sued them to force them to release the data, including details such as what “toxic” assets were purchased, any collateral involved, and any restrictions put on the use of the money.

Kevin Magee, Executive Vice President, FOX News commented, “The Treasury has repeatedly ignored our requests for information on how the government is allocating money to these troubled institutions. In a critical time like this amidst mounting corruptions and an economic crisis, we as a news organization feel it’s more important than ever to hold the government accountable.”

So there you have it. The journalistic crusaders at Fox have shown today that every once in a while,  they do something right. Here’s hoping they win.

Why I opposed the Sales Tax increase

Matt from the Argus Leader wrote a great column about the sales tax increase. Though he makes some good points he missed why some of us opposed the tax. I opposed the tax because I feel the city has made very poor choices in the past 6 years when it comes to road funding. Our tax revenue has doubled in the past decade, yet our retail tax rate has not decreased and we are behind on road construction. What does this mean? It means our city is not spending our money wisely. With that kind of revenue increase we should be driving on well maintained and new roads or our taxes should be low – neither is true. Now that the National economy is tanking it has become more evident that a sales tax increase will be an extra burden on SF residents.

I have often thought that if politicians use common sense when they make decisions, they will make good decisions, when do not use common sense they make dumb decisions. The sales tax increase was not a common sense decision.

Get it dummies?