[Peace-discuss] Comments on last evening's Champaign mayoral debate

[David Green]

The mayoral candidates convened last evening. The video willbe re-broadcast at 11 this evening, and innumerable times thereafter at allhours of the morning.All of the four candidates recognized that poverty is an issue. They hope, and perhaps pray, for economic developmentand jobs. Mayor Gerard implied that he has something to do with a lowerunemployment rate in Champaign County since he took office. I have my doubtswhether the real unemployment rate is much lower, about the nature of new jobs,and about the relationship of any of that to his policies, including the summeryouth jobs for which he takes credit.There seemed to be a consensus in support of TIFs, and forBristol Place development. I have my doubts whether that constitutes aneconomic development strategy. Joe Petry claimed to have a detailed economicvision on his website; I can’t seem to find that on his website.All are proud of our new hotels.They all love the idea of combatting “sprawl” and promotingin-fill. Gerard mentioned the national award that Champaign received regardingits population density, even though it’s not an island like New York City, which got an even better mark and which just isn't fair. I’mno authority on local issues, including this one, but it would seem that thereare some contradictions here. Do we not have sprawl? Do not the developers wantto create more sprawl? Won’t any of these candidates have to please thedevelopers? It was seen as a feather in the cap of in-fill that Worden-Martinmoved (was bribed to move?) to Anthony Drive. That seems to me a pretty low barregarding urban planning. Or perhaps the more popular expression is "low-hanging fruit."Gerard is running partly on his alleged support fororganized labor. Last night he lauded Phyllis Wise, whom we are “lucky to have.”Thus there may be a contradiction between his support for Wise and his allegedsupport for labor on campus. Gerard is proud of everything he’s done, all thepeople he’s ever worked with, and indeed all the people he’s met. Champaign isthe “best city in the country.” (Full disclosure: I enjoy living in Champaignmore than Los Angeles or Chicago.). However he did, he reminded us, talk backto Gov. Rauner. But I'm not getting my pitchfork ready to join him at the governor's door.I submitted a question about discrimination againstAfrican-Americans in traffic stops, fines, etc. They all agreed that the policeshould “look more like the community.” Anthony Cobb, they said, is making thathappen. They all agreed that Chief Cobb is a stellar figure who will work tosolve these problems. They invoked community policing; however, I doubt thatthe premises or track record of what is called “community policing” offer muchhope for meaningful change. It would seem, and I’m sure that it’s obvious tomost of those reading this, that such change would have to come at morefundamental levels of economic equality and ending the war on drugs and massincarceration. The latter wasn’t mentioned, as far as I can recall, although Idid lose focus a few times.Deb Feinin was at the meeting at the Urbana Civic Center afew weeks ago about traffic stops, etc. So she is aware that there is a genuineproblem. Unfortunately, I’m still vague about the level of that problem inChampaign in comparison to a place like Ferguson. It would be good to have moredata about fines, jailing, etc., but that doesn’t work for a question writtenon a note card.Karen Foster, as reported in the N-G, was the only candidatewilling to consider raising taxes to meet possible budget deficits. She mightget my vote just on that basis, if I vote, even though she’s the most poorlyspoken of the lot. But perhaps that’s a point in her favor. Feinen said that itwould be a shame to raise taxes, just as jobs are picking up. But if you laypeople off from government, then you lose both jobs and taxes. But you don’tlearn that in law school.In sum, Joe Petry would probably make the best technocratamong them, although of course the other three have more experience in citygovernment per se. Petry seems like a genuinely conscientious guy. I could bewrong, but I could picture having an intelligent and productive conversation with him.I was confirmed in my belief that I don’t think a whole lotof Don Gerard.Concluding editorial comment: My back-of-the-envelopecalculation is that the yearly income of the top 20% of household in Champaign(6000 or so) totals over $1 billion, probably a conservative estimate, andleaving their wealth aside. In this state, that strata pays 7-8% in state/localtaxes, while the bottom quintile pays 13%. A 3-5% surcharge on the adjustedgross income of this group could easily net $20-30 million, but there’s noreason why at least $50 million shouldn’t be taxed from this group in order toput a lot more people to work providing services. City government, with broadpublic participation, should decide what services the people need, how manyjobs it wants to create, and then tax on that basis.The total locally funded budgets of Champaign city, schools,parks, and libraries are probably about $180 million. Given the wealth of ourcommunity (over $4 billion GDP, City of Champaign), there’s no reason for theseservices to be so hard-pressed. But of course the reason they are is that noneof the candidates can broach the topic of going to where the money is, fromthose who have the most and need it the least, and of course have the mostinfluence on politics and campaign funding, even at the local penny-ante level.Of course, all of this would be more efficiently done at the county or state levels. But there's no reason for local municipalities not to set an example. Phyllis Wise isn't going to pack up her bags and move to Monticello.Conclusion: a good socialist would have made for aninteresting evening. But at least they didn’t let Barb Wysocki be themoderator. That’s what allowed me to stay awake throughout. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150319/4d1897ce/attachment.html>