Martha Reeves wants tax break

[Mkap]

2. Our current tax revenue is insufficient to balance the books or to provide an acceptable level of basic services. I don't know how you expect us to make do with even less.
Thank you, Mkap, for all you do to subsidize my continued suffering. Poverty by choice is a beautiful thing.

The big D gets what it deserves regarding the tax base, or lack thereof. Now that you own it, do something with it besides complain. Or, move to a community more condusive to the services you require. I got while the gettin' was good.

No thanks neccessary. Just doing the right thing by you and yours. I guess poverty ain't what it used to be, huh?

I can't discuss with someone who can't reason. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.

[Bearinabox]

The big D gets what it deserves regarding the tax base, or lack thereof. Now that you own it, do something with it besides complain. Or, move to a community more condusive to the services you require. I got while the gettin' was good.

You're missing my point, which is that large across-the-board tax cuts really aren't feasible given the size of our budget hole. I'm not complaining about the lack of services in Detroit, I'm simply stating the fact that they don't measure up to what is expected of a major city in 21st-century America. If you care to dispute that fact, I'm all ears.

BTW, what do you mean by the phrase "now that you own it?" Who am I, and what do I own?

No thanks neccessary. Just doing the right thing by you and yours. I guess poverty ain't what it used to be, huh?

Did I not lay on the sarcasm thick enough there? I thought the phrase "ample job prospects here in Detroit" would have been sufficient to set off even the least sensitive of sarcasm detectors.

[Mkap]

You're missing my point, which is that large across-the-board tax cuts really aren't feasible given the size of our budget hole. I'm not complaining about the lack of services in Detroit, I'm simply stating the fact that they don't measure up to what is expected of a major city in 21st-century America. If you care to dispute that fact, I'm all ears.

BTW, what do you mean by the phrase "now that you own it?" Who am I, and what do I own?
Did I not lay on the sarcasm thick enough there? I thought the phrase "ample job prospects here in Detroit" would have been sufficient to set off even the least sensitive of sarcasm detectors.

No dispute there but, it doesn't have to be large cuts. Small incremental steps to draw new blood into the city. People are moving out, of this once great city, because they miss those 'expected' needs. That's why I decided to head for the hills. Couldn't get a police officer when I needed one in my neighborhood. I didn't complain either, I just sank a for sale sign the next day. Now, I see cruisers in my area all the time, and I like that. My basic, as well as crucial, needs are met.

It seems that the 'budget hole' you describe is like, what comes first, the chicken or the egg. I don't think D has any other choice but to cut taxes to institute a reversal of what is happening now. The masses are leaving. Maybe not as fast as in the 70's or 80's, but leaving just the same.

I'm no financial genius, but if I were in control I'd be pulling a Robert Bobb and reducing whatever it takes to be fiscally responsible.
1) Reduce the staggering business tax [[I know, I know, that's the State, but still...) to get fresh owners who pay property tax, and wages to people, who in turn pay the city employment tax.
2) Reduce the cities employment tax so the people who come back to the city to work will, occasionally, spend some of that cash near where they work.

It has to start someplace to reverse the monstrous damage that has been caused in the last forty years of some of the previous administrations lack of forethought. Some of the less intelligent people in the area saw it coming. Why didn't the smart ones? Probably because they needed to be right, more than the many must be wrong. Power does that to some, I guess.
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What I meant was, I no longer have a vested interest in the city. You, the people who still live and or work there, 'own it'. Very little of my tax dollars are there. Although, I truly wish things could be different.