A Good Faith Proposal

I've written a little bit about this pension fund shortfall. I asked if we could take the parks tax and apply it to a pension fund, rationale if we voted in the tax to go to the parks, we could vote to shift the tax to go to the pension. Well, it's a lot more complicated than that. Capital improvement funds and earmarked funds have to be spent for the earmarks, you can't shift money around.

Then I read in the SN-L today about the old quarry* at National and Trafficway:

The money comes in four separate HUD Economic Development Initiative grants that were originally earmarked for the downtown arena site next to the Expo Center.

Mary Lily Smith, the city's economic development director, said the city got permission to shift those funds to the quarry redevelopment project after John Q. Hammons decided to buy the arena site and build a hotel.

The city must spend $804,735 by June 2009.

The three remaining grants and when they must be spent are: $894,690 (Feb. 4, 2010); $248,000 (Feb 26, 2011); $247,500 (Oct. 24, 2011).

Um, I really don't know where to start, or even if I want to start.

Go read Jackehammer's blog posting on the police and fire pension sales tax.

*remember this article about the quarry and the great fire in it that burned for ten years, from 1973 - 1983?